Zurich Acquires 50% of Spain’s Caixa Sabadell Life & P/C Insurance Units

Zurich Financial Services Group announced that it has signed agreements to acquire a 50 percent stake in Spain’s Caixa d’Estalvis de Sabadell’s life and general insurance companies, CaixaSabadell Vida, S.A. de Seguros y Reaseguros (CSV), founded in 1988, and CaixaSabadell Companyia d’Assegurances Generals, S.A. (CSG), founded in 2007.

The purchase price is $360 million initially “plus an earn-out component of up to approximately $150 million depending on the future performance of CSV and CSG,” the announcement said. “As part of the agreements, CSV and CSG will enter into banc-assurance agreements with Caixa Sabadell Group to sell life insurance, pension and general insurance products through Caixa Sabadell’s branch network on an exclusive basis.”

The acquisition is subject to the approval of the relevant regulatory authorities. Zurich hopes to close the deal by the third quarter of 2008.

Zurich also noted: “Caixa Sabadell, founded in 1859, has an excellent regional distribution network of currently 366 branches with access to more than 620,000 customers and a strong focus on banc-assurance. In 2007, premiums written through its insurance companies amounted to $363 million in CSV and $3 million in CSG.
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“Caixa Sabadell is mainly operating in Spain’s Northeastern region of Catalonia but recently started an expansion with branches in Valencia and Madrid and plans to further expand into other Spanish regions.”

Mario Greco, Zurich’s CEO Global Life Insurance, commented: “The transaction represents a high potential growth opportunity for us to expand in one of our key growth areas. It further enables us to combine the strong distribution capacity of Caixa Sabadell with Zurich’s considerable proposition strengths and efficient pan-European operating platform.”

Source: Zurich – www.zurich.com