Fairfax buys Eurolife from Eurobank for 316 million
The Eurolife ERB insurance group is evolving into one of the fastest-developing groups in the world after its transfer on Tuesday to Fairfax Financial Holding, which is also the main stakeholder in Eurobank with a 16.88 percent holding.
The price paid to Eurobank for the sale of 80 percent of the Eurolife ERB Insurance Group came to 316 million euros. The sale concerns the insurance activities of life and general insurance in Greece and Romania, the insurance broker subsidiary in Greece, and the bancassurance contracts between insurance companies and the bank – i.e. the capacity to sell insurance products via the bank’s branch network.
The sale means that Eurolife is entering a very strong insurance group that controls 19 insurance companies around the world, and has minority stakes of up to 41 percent in five other insurers. The Greek company becomes the 20th insurance activity controlled by Fairfax, which is active in markets such as Canada, South America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East.
Eurobank announced that the deal will allow it to benefit from the creation of added value through its minority stake in the Eurolife group, which accounts for a market share of some 10 percent in Greece. It will also raise Eurobank’s Core Tier 1 index by some 26 basis points, to 17.8 percent.
