Munich-headquartered insurance group Allianz, which last year purchased Westpac Banking Corporation’s general insurance (GI) business for $725 million, is reportedly looking to snap up the GI unit of Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) as well.
According to the DataRoom column of The Australian, Allianz has tapped Barclays-backed Barrenjoey Capital Partners for advice on its CBA bid. Also said to be in the running are Insurance Australia Group (IAG), Suncorp Group, QBE Insurance Group, and Tokio Marine.
When the Allianz-Westpac deal was announced in December 2020, Allianz group boss Oliver Bäte stated: “We are delighted to further strengthen our position in the Australian retail market and happy to expand our relationship with Westpac.”
The abovementioned transaction is expected to be completed in the middle of this year, and acquiring another lender’s GI operations on top of that will further boost Allianz’s current standing.
Citing IBISWorld data, The Australian said the German insurer is ranked third in terms of general insurance market share in Australia. IAG and Suncorp, respectively, are numbers one and two.
