MILAN, June 27 (Reuters) – Italian cooperative banking group ICCREA is expected to pick two insurance partners by the end of next month after receiving bids for operations which are valued at up to 950 million euros ($1 billion) in total, two people close to the matter said.
Following in the tracks of peer Banco BPM (BAMI.MI), which recently struck a similar deal, ICCREA has taken back full control of its insurance businesses and is working to select new partners.
Under such partnerships, insurers normally buy the majority of joint ventures they set up with financial groups, while also entering multi-year distribution agreements with the lenders.
ICCREA bought out its partner Cattolica, an Italian insurer now owned by market leader Generali (GASI.MI), after their accord expired at the end of last year and was not renewed.
It has been has been working with adviser KPMG in recent months to select new partners for both its life- and non-life divisions.
ICCREA received binding bids for the two divisions on June 16 and it is now examining them with a view to selecting one for each unit by the end of next month at the latest, the people said.
BNP Paribas Cardif, Apollo-backed Athora and Apax Partners-backed GamaLife have bid for the life business, for which the valuation is of 600-700 million euros, one of the sources said.
The non-life business, whose value is seen at 150-250 million euros, has drawn interest instead from German insurer Talanx Group, Swiss rival Helvetia Group, France’s Groupama and Italian cooperative insurer Assimoco.
BNP Paribas Cardif, Helvetia and Athora declined to comment. None of the other interested parties had any immediate comment.
Cattolica and ICCREA had agreed in 2019 to extend until the end of 2022 their partnership under a deal that saw Cattolica raise to 70% its ownership of their insurance joint-ventures BCC Vita and BCC Assicurazioni.
(This story has been refiled to remove an extraneous word in the headline)
($1 = 0.9116 euros)
Reporting by Valentina Za in Milan and Amy-Jo Crowley in London Editing by Keith Weir
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Italy’s ICCREA to select insurance partners by end of July-sources
