Strengthening its position in
Turkey, US insurer MetLife is to acquire a 99.86% stake in
DenizEmeklilik, the life insurance and pension subsidiary of
Belgian bank Dexia’s Turkish unit DenizBank, in a cash deal worth
€162m ($245m).
The acquisition will be
undertaken through MetLife’s Turkish unit MetLife Alico, which
formed part of American Life Insurance Company acquired by MetLife
from American International Group in 2010 for $15.5bn. MetLife
Alico was established in 1988.
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As part of the deal,
DenizBank will enter into an exclusive 15-year distribution
agreement with MetLife Alico to distribute life, pensions, personal
accident and unemployment insurance products. DenizBank is one of
Turkey’s six largest private banks and has some 500 branches, a
number it plans to increase to 800 by 2014.
For Dexia, the divestment is
part of a restructuring plan agreed to by the European Commission
in 2010. Among other things, the agreement required Dexia to
dispose of DenizEmeklilik by 31 October 2012 at the
latest.
The agreement followed
Dexia’s receipt of state aid totalling €6.4bn in 2008. Of this
total, €3bn came from the Belgian state and three Belgian regional
governments; €3bn from the French state; and €376m from the
government of Luxembourg.
