Baloise to acquire Fidea from Anbang Insurance Group for €480m.

The Baloise Group is acquiring the Belgian insurer Fidea for €480m ($542) from China’s Anbang Insurance Group, strengthening its position in the Belgian non-life and life insurance market. The deal will increase Baloise’s share of the attractive non-life business in Belgium from 6.8% to 8.5%, taking it a step closer to becoming one of the top four non-life insurers in the Belgian market. In the life business, the acquisition will increase market share from 3.5% to 4.2%. Baloise CEO Gert De Winter said: “The acquisition of Fidea fits perfectly with our Simply Safe strategy, both in terms of strengthening the core business in our focus markets and the highly innovative and experimental approach to digitalisation. The acquisition and resulting synergies will provide a long-term boost to our growth potential and earnings power and give us additional market share in the attractive Belgian market.”