Allianz-led consortium in advanced talks to take on Aviva’s French arm: sources

By Pamela Barbaglia, Alexander Hübner and Arno Schuetze

LONDON/MUNICH/FRANKFURT (Reuters) – A consortium of German insurer Allianz and private equity-backed life insurer Athora Holding is in advanced talks to take on Aviva’s French operations in a deal worth 2 billion to 3 billion euros ($3.49 billion), sources close to the matter said.

Aviva is working with JPMorgan and Rothschild on selling the unit which provides life insurance to French clients, the sources said.

The business has also drawn interest from Axa , Assicurazioni Generali and French mutual insurer La Mondiale among others, the sources said.

Aviva said in a statement that it was “in the very early stages of developing its strategy for its continental European and Asian businesses.”

Allianz, Athora, Axa, Generali and the banks declined to comment.

($1 = 0.8591 euros)

(Reporting by Pamela Barbaglia, Alexander Huebner and Arno Schuetze; additional reporting by Carolyn Cohn, Maya Nikolaeva and Stephen Jewkes; editing by David Evans)