Building on its recent agreement to purchase Polish retail bank Dominet, Fortis has turned its eyes to Germany with its announced acquisition of German life insurer Gutingia Lebensversicherung AG.
Gutingia employs 31 people and booked gross written premiums of E12.1 million in 2005. Rumors that Fortis was considering making a bid for the company to boost its presence in Germany surfaced earlier in October in the German press, although Fortis declined to comment on a possible deal at the time.
Germany is one of the largest life insurance markets in Europe and has strong top-line growth potential in the near to medium term, considering the low penetration rates and recent reforms of the pension system, noted Jacob Westerlaken, CEO of Fortis Insurance International Europe, explaining the motivation for the Gutingia purchase.
It is a key country for Fortis, as is evidenced by the recent acquisition of Von Essen Bank and the expansion of consumer finance through Credit Shops (Credit4me), not to mention our merchant banking, commercial and private banking and asset management activities, he continued.
Fortis said that the transaction will have no impact on its net profit per share.