Cinven has completed its acquisition of German life insurer Heidelberger Leben for a total consideration of EUR300m.
On 27 March 2014, the Heidelberger Leben Group announced that it had reached agreement to acquire Skandia Germany and Skandia Austria for EUR220m from Old Mutual plc.
The combination of Heidelberger Leben and Skandia Germany and Austria will create a strong basis for further consolidation with approximately EUR10bn assets under management and approximately one million policies. The group will invest substantially in its IT systems and operating platform to lower administration costs and further improve customer service levels for policyholders in Germany and Austria.
In addition, Dr Heinz-Peter Ross will join Heidelberger Leben as group CEO on 1 July 2014. Michael Sattler will become group CFO. Ross joins from Talanx AG where he was an executive board member in charge of the retail business in Germany.
Cinven’s investment strategy for Heidelberger Leben mirrors that of Guardian Financial Services in the UK. Cinven acquired Guardian, a UK provider of life and pension products with GBP8bn in assets, from Aegon in November 2011. Since then, Guardian has made two acquisitions: 300,000 in-payment pension annuities from Phoenix plc in June 2012 and Ark Life Assurance Company in December 2013. Guardian now manages approximately GBP16bn of assets and approximately 976,000 policies.
