The acquisition of German group Allianz's subsidiaries in Benin, Burkina Faso, Mali, Togo and the Central African Republic by pan-African insurer Sunu received the approval of the regional regulator at the end of December 2019.

The boldly negotiated transaction in December 2019 allows Pathé Dione, founder of Sunu Assurances, to take control of companies in good shape. The former Allianz non-life subsidiaries display strong profitability, with a solid operating result to revenue ratio in the Central African Republic (24.8% in 2017), Burkina Faso (20.9%) and Mali (12.8%). The acquisition was completed with the approval of the Inter-African Conference of Insurance Markets (CIMA).

Particularly coveted by the Senegalese insurer, the life and non-life (fire, accidents and miscellaneous risks: IARD) subsidiaries of Allianz in Ouagadougou should allow SUNU to break into the top 3, currently dominated by the Sonar group, Saham and the Union des assurances du Burkina. Through this strategy, the German insurance giant intends to withdraw from several markets as part of its business refocusing strategy. Allianz's priority being to concentrate on high value-added countries.

For its part, SUNU clearly demonstrates its African expansion policy with this transaction, which follows the acquisition of 63% of the capital of pan-African group Equity Assurance and 58% of the capital of the Banque Populaire pour l'Epargne et le Crédit (BPEC) in Togo.

By the end of 2019, the SUNU group had definitively completed the merger and absorption of the five Allianz subsidiaries. All regulatory and legal approvals were obtained and everything was finalized, according to an authorized source. Begun since the end of 2018, the negotiations between SUNU and Allianz had resulted in the signing of a divestiture agreement on April 29, 2019.

Article sources: Ecomatin.net