PARIS (dpa-AFX) - French insurer Axa SA (AXAHY.PK) Friday said it has entered into an agreement to buy 100 percent of Assur Africa Holdings for a total cash consideration of 198 million euros. Assure Africa holds 77 percent stake in Nigeria's composite insurance company Mansard Insurance Plc.
Assur Africa Holdings' only assets are its shares in Mansard. This consortium is led by DPI, Africinvest, DEG, FMO and PROPARCO, Axa said.
Axa would include the acquired operations within its Mediterranean & Latin American region. The closing of the deal is expected before the end of 2014.
Founded in 1989, Mansard has operations in both Property & Casualty and Life & Savings. This transaction would allow Axa to enter the highly attractive Nigerian market, the firm said.
Further, Mansard would be able to capitalize on Axa's extended distribution knowledge, as well as unique product skills.
According to Axa, Mansard is well established in commercial lines, which represents about two thirds of its revenues. It has also been developing successfully its retail business, achieving a growth of around 40 percent per annum on average over the last three years.
In 2013, Mansard's net income was 9.9 million euros, and had total assets of 163.4 million euros.
Denis Duverne, deputy chief executive officer of Axa stated that this acquisition helps it to enter the largest African economy with leading positions in all business lines and to get exposure to the fast-growing Nigerian retail insurance market.
'Leveraging on our complementary strengths as well as common values and long-term vision, we can now deliver even higher levels of product innovation, underwriting capacity and operational excellence to our corporate and retail clients,' said Tosin Runsewe, managing director of Mansard Group.
In Paris, Axa shares are currently trading at 19.31 euros, up 0.13 percent.
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