Axa SA has agreed to buy a majority stake in Nigeria’s Mansard Insurance PLC for €198 million ($246 million) to enter the country’s rapidly growing market.
Axa is buying 77% of Mansard, which is listed on the Nigerian stock exchange .
The French group is already in Morocco, the second-largest African insurance market, and several other French-speaking countries.
This transaction would allow AXA to enter the highly attractive Nigerian market while Mansard would be able to capitalise on AXA’s extended distribution knowledge, unique product skills and actuarial know-how, to accelerate further its development and leverage its competitive advantages.
Speaking on the acquisition, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of AXA, Denis Duverne, said: “This acquisition is a unique opportunity for AXA to enter the largest African economy with leading positions in all business lines and to get exposure to the fast-growing Nigerian retail insurance market. AXA will benefit locally from the knowledge of an experienced and successful management team and from a profitable platform. Thus, this transaction represents a further step in our acceleration strategy, which is at the heart of our Ambition AXA plan, and is in line with our belief that insurance is instrumental to foster economic development, by providing communities with protection and risk management expertise.”
On his part, Managing Director, Mansard, Mrs. Tosin Runsewe said: “We are delighted to join the AXA Group, a global leader in Life & Savings, Property & Casualty and Asset Management. It is indeed a befitting home for the Mansard Group given our leading position in the same business lines within Nigeria and our unflinching drive to consistently create exceptional value for all our stakeholders. Leveraging on our complementary strengths as well as common values and long-term vision, we can now deliver even higher levels of product innovation, underwriting capacity and operational excellence to our corporate and retail clients. We view with much excitement the opportunity to bring our strong entrepreneurial orientation to bear in delivering on AXA’s sub-Saharan African expansionary ambitions.”
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