Su Aegon
Come ben sa chi segue Aegon, la società sta cercando di vendere la parte riassicurativa del business USA (Transamerica RE). Bisogna dire che di questo si sta parlando da un po' troppo tempo. Ecco comunque un articolo di Bloomberg di un paio di giorni fa.
Scor Is Said to Be in Talks to Buy Aegon’s Transamerica Re (2)
By Zachary Mider, Jacqueline Simmons and Fabio Benedetti
March 8 (Bloomberg) -- Scor SE, France’s largest reinsurer, is in talks to buy Dutch rival Aegon NV’s Transamerica Reinsurance unit, said four people with knowledge of the matter.
A deal for the U.S.-based business, which had a book value of 1.6 billion euros ($2.2 billion) as of 2009, may still be weeks away, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the talks are private. Scor has emerged as the lead bidder over Reinsurance Group of America Inc., one of the people said.
Scor Chief Executive Officer Denis Kessler has been seeking to expand the Paris-based company’s life-reinsurance business, which helps insurers pool their risks and accounted for about 40 percent of 2010 operating profit. Kessler agreed last month to sell the company’s U.S. fixed-annuity unit to free up capital for its “core” life-reinsurance operations.
“We don’t know if Transamerica Re satisfies the acquisition criteria” of Scor, Kessler said today on a conference call with reporters. He declined to comment on whether the company is in talks to buy Transamerica Re. Scor may consider purchasing assets including mortality reinsurance, Kessler said. He didn’t name any takeover targets.
Scor may not buy all of Transamerica Re’s assets, one person said last month. The talks may not result in an agreement. A spokesman for Aegon declined to comment.
Mortality Assets
Any offer by Scor would “be on part of the portfolio and essentially targeted on mortality” assets, said Jean d’Herbecourt, an analyst at CA Cheuvreux in Paris who has an “outperform” rating on Scor. Transamerica Re’s U.S. mortality business portfolio has an estimated value of about $570 million, d’Herbecourt wrote in a Jan. 4 note to investors.
Scor fell 3 percent to 20.43 euros in Paris trading as of 3:13 p.m., valuing the company at about 3.84 billion euros. Aegon rose 1.7 percent in Amsterdam trading.
Scor today raised its 2010 dividend after reporting fourth- quarter profit rose 64 percent. The company said it estimates about 200 million euros of total costs from natural disasters in Australia and New Zealand this year.
Aegon, trying to pay back a 2008 government rescue valued at 3 billion euros, said last month it was in talks with one party on the sale of the reinsurance unit. The Hague-based company raised 903 million euros in a share sale last month, and said that the potential sale of Transamerica would cause 2011 underlying pretax profit to be negatively affected.
Sale ‘Flexibility’
Aegon has “flexibility” with regard to the sale of Transamerica Re, Aegon CEO Alex Wynaendts said last month on a conference call.
Aegon obtained Transamerica Re as part of the purchase of San Francisco-based Transamerica Corp. in 1999.
Transamerica Re was the third-largest U.S. life reinsurer in 2009 with an 18.1 percent market share, trailing Chesterfield, Missouri-based Reinsurance Group of America and Swiss Reinsurance Co., according to the Society of Actuaries. Scor had a 2.9 percent share.
, ho tolto le barre rosse sulla cedola 
