Allianz offloads €1.4bn Belgian life portfolio to Monument Re in 'capital light' strategy

German insurer Allianz has reached an agreement to sell its Belgian life insurance and mortgage portfolio worth €1.4 billion to Bermuda-based re/insurer Monument Re, as part of its strategy to shift to "capital light insurance products" and reduce its operational complexity.

Under the agreement, Allianz Benelux (Belgium) will transfer a closed book of classical life retail insurances and 4,500 mortgage loans to Monument Assurance Belgium (MAB). The related operations will be transferred to MAB, which specialises in acquiring and managing classical life portfolios in Europe, within 18 months of regulatory approvals being received.

Allianz Benelux will transfer a portfolio of 95.000 policies with technical provisions of €1.4 billion under Solvency II.

Allianz stopped writing new business for this portfolio in the early 2000s. The classic life Assubel contracts which were underwritten prior to 1988 are out of scope.

Allianz stated that it remains committed to the Belgian market, focusing on open books in life, health, employee benefits and property/casualty, offering innovative and modern product lines like Branch 23.

Monument Re said the transaction marks a major milestone in the realisation of its closed life consolidation strategy for the Belgian market. It has already acquired ABN AMRO Life Capital Belgium, Ethias’ First A portfolio, Alpha Insurance’s traditional and credit life portfolio and part of Curalia’s second pillar pension life insurance portfolio. The Allianz transaction delivers a substantial increase in scale, it said.

The transaction is subject to regulatory approvals.

Kathleen Van den Eynde, chief executive for Belgium of Allianz Benelux, said: “With this sale Allianz creates leverage to grow. It will further reduce our operational complexity and strengthen our already solid financial position. With its strong track record in acquiring and integrating policies and policyholders, we believe MAB is the ideal candidate
to take over this portfolio. Allianz remains fully committed to Belgium and this transaction is consistent with our priorities to serve customers with our core innovative unit-linked and protection solutions. We will focus on continuing our growth path in Life, Health, Employee Benefits and further developing our Property-Casualty offering. We look forward to achieving our market ambitions together with our brokers.”

Manfred Maske, chief executive of Monument Re Group, said: “We look forward to welcoming the policyholders to Monument and would like to take the opportunity to assure them of our commitment to maintaining the high quality service and security that they have enjoyed at Allianz. We view Belgium as a key market for Monument Re and we are very pleased to now have the opportunity to take a significant step in realizing our ambitions. Following earlier acquisitions of four other Belgian portfolios this transaction with Allianz helps us to substantially increase scale and confirms Monument Assurance’s position as a leading consolidator in the Belgian market. ”