Crédit Agricole Assurances announces his project to acquire Axeria Vie and its subsidiary April Patrimoine

Crédit Agricole Assurances and April Group today announced that they have finalised an agreement for the sale of 100% of Axeria Vie and its subsidiary April Patrimoine. The transaction is subject to clearance from the supervisory authorities.

This acquisition will give Crédit Agricole Assurances an effective management platform dedicated to smaller ranges of innovative products for specialised channels, such as premium and online ranges and enhances its offering in the life and savings insurance market. For April Group, it marks the final stage in the company's strategy to withdraw from the life insurance business.

Axeria Vie, a life insurance company specialised in designing customised life and savings insurance products distributed under its partner agents’ brand names, reported at end-2009 187 million euros in new inflows, 251 million euros in underwriting reserves and 27 employees.

April Patrimoine, subsidiary of Axeria Vie, designs, manages and distributes savings, retirement and wealth management products, reported at end-2009 10.3 million euros in commission income, 180 million euros in new inflows, 991 million euros in underwriting reserves and 36 employees.

According to Bernard Michel, Chief Executive of Crédit Agricole Assurances: "The acquisition of April Group’s Life and Savings business fits our expansion policy and strategy guidelines. It will enable Crédit Agricole Assurances to continue to diversify in the life and savings insurance market and to complement its range of products and services through a flexible and innovative IT management platform". 

For Bruno Rousset, Chairman and CEO of April Group: "Crédit Agricole Assurances is the ideal candidate to give April Patrimoine and Axeria Vie every opportunity to realise their growth and innovation potential. By achieving critical mass and pooling their experience and expertise, these businesses and their teams will have more opportunities for growth and success. Meanwhile, by concentrating our investments on our brokerage operations in health, provident and P&C insurance, we are giving ourselves added leeway to further consolidate and develop our positions as a benchmark in our core businesses".