German Firm Buys Nigerian Insurer for $35m

• German Firm Buys Nigerian Insurer for $35m

Germany’s Allianz plans to pay $35m for 98 per cent stake in a Nigerian insurer, Ensure Insurance, in a push for growth in Africa, where many people are uninsured.

Reuters, which reported this on Wednesday, said foreign insurers were banking on growing premiums as the continent began to develop its infrastructure, with the consumer class demanding protection from risk.

Allianz said that it would acquire the stake from a UK-based holding company, Greenoaks Global Holdings.

Ensure Insurance offers life and non-life cover to businesses and retail clients and generated 11 million euros ($13m) in gross premiums last year, according to the report.

The Allianz group has operations in 16 African countries and views the Ensure acquisition as an opportunity to tap into Nigeria’s strong demographics and economy.

The Allianz Africa’s spokesperson, Bettina Sattler, said, “The transaction gives Allianz access to the fifth-largest insurance market in Africa and is in line with our strategy to capture long-term growth opportunities on the continent.

“It is also a market with significant entry barriers, which is another reason why this acquisition is a great opportunity for us. Entering Nigeria with a team that knows the market was essential for us.”

It said Allianz expected the acquisition to close this year, adding that it intended to retain Ensure’s management team.

It also said the German insurer planned to focus on property and casualty insurance, particularly underwriting industrial and speciality risk in the energy sector, as well a large complex risks such as infrastructure.

Sattler said, “In the past two years, we have been quite visible in Nigeria, sharing our risk-management expertise in power, oil and gas, as well as cyber insurance.

“Now that we have a company locally … the retail sector is another growth sector for us.”

Allianz follows British insurer Prudential, which last month bought a majority stake in Nigeria’s Zenith Life to gain access to the African country’s fast-growing insurance market.

South African insurer Liberty Holdings, which bought the remaining shares it did not already own in Nigeria’s Total Health Trust in August 2015, said in February that it would acquire a 75 per cent stake in an unidentified Nigerian long-term insurer for 160 million rand ($12m).