AXA buys Nigeria insurer Assur in $246mn deal

Reuters

Paris

French insurer AXA said it was buying control of Nigeria’s fourth-largest insurer in a push for growth on a continent where many people are uninsured.

AXA said in a statement that it would pay €198mn ($246mn) in cash for 100% of Assur Africa holdings, which holds a 77% stakes in Mansard Insurance. The insurer has activities in both the property and casualty and the life and savings sectors.

With prospects for growth in its developed markets limited, Europe’s second-largest insurer is seeking to build up its presence in fast-growing markets.

After deals in recent years in China, Colombia and Poland, AXA’s deputy chief executive Denis Duverne said it was turning its sights on Africa, where its presence so far has been limited to francophone countries.

“Africa is clearly a continent for which we have had a particular interest recently and this deal is the first visible transaction to mark this interest,” Duverne told Reuters.

Duverne said acquisitions were not the only way the company aimed to gain footholds in Africa, noting it had plans to set up an operation from scratch in Egypt.

“The Egyptian market is not yet very structured and it didn’t seem to us that there was a company that would allow us to get going,” he said.

With an eye on setting up a business in the country, AXA Chief Excutive Henri de Castries met with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi during his visit to Paris this week.