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(Bloomberg) -- Helvetia Holding AG is considering a sale of its loss-making German insurance operations, according to people familiar with the matter. The Swiss insurer has hired JPMorgan Chase & Co. and plans to collect non-binding offers for the unit in the coming weeks, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing non-public information.
Helvetia could fetch between 500 million Swiss francs and 600 million Swiss francs ($663 million) from the deal, they said. The potential sale is at an early stage and deliberations are ongoing, the people said. Spokespeople for Helvetia and JPMorgan declined to comment.
Helvetia’s German operations generated 988 million Swiss francs in written premiums and deposits in 2023, according to an earnings report. That amounted to roughly 8.7% of the firm’s overall business volume.
The German unit, which is part of an operating division that also includes operations across Italy and Austria, posted a loss in 2023, according to a separate earnings report. Helvetia has blamed the poor results on a cooling German economy and limited construction activity. The Swiss insurance industry has been the subject of increased takeover speculation ever since an activist investor built up a sizable stake in one of Helvetia’s main rivals: Baloise Holding AG.
Since then, players including Zurich Insurance Group AG, Axa SA and Allianz SE have studied whether they would want to bid for Baloise or parts of its business if they come up for sale, Bloomberg previously reported. Helvetia, for its part, is one of the few listed Swiss insurers. The company’s shares have risen 31% in the past year, giving it a valuation of about 8.
16 billion Swiss francs. The insurer announced in December a slate of new financial targets for 2025 through 2027 and also pledged higher dividend payments. Helvetia also pledged cost-savings measures of more than 200 million francs in the next three years.
(Updates with cost savings in last paragraph. An earlier version of this story was corrected to say the German unit lost money in 2023 but not the previous year.) More stories like this are available on bloomberg.
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