CIT Finance Capital buying Aviva Insurance Co
MOSCOW. Feb 27 (Interfax) - The shareholders in CIT Finance Capital have decided to acquire 100% of the shares (240,000 shares) in CJSC Aviva Insurance Company from Aviva Europe SE and Aviva International Insurance limited for a total price of no more than 35 million euro, the buyer said in a statement.
CIT Finance Investment Bank will act as the guarantor for the deal.
At the end of last year, the market was actively discussing information regarding Aviva's possible withdrawal from Russia. However, the company itself officially denied this, indicating its ambitious development plans, including entry into new insurance sectors and the launch of new products.
According to Interfax's SPARK database, LLC CIT Finance Holding Company owns 99% of CIT Finance Capital. OJSC Russian Railways (RZD) and non-state pension fund Blagosostoyanie are the end owners of CIT Finance Holding Company.
The CIT Finance group previously contained an insurance company - OJSC CIT Finance Insurance. Then, last March, CIT Finance Holding Company sold 99.99% of the voting shares in OJSC CIT Finance Insurance to international insurance group Liberty Mutual. This deal took place as part of a strategy to sell non-core assets in the interests of the bank CIT Finance, with the proceeds being used to pay off RZD's debts.
CIT Finance Insurance changed its name to Liberty Insurance this month.
In Russia, Aviva is represented by CJSC Aviva Insurance Company and Aviva Pensions. According to Russia's Federal Financial Markets Service (FFMS), in January-September 2012 Aviva was among the top ten companies specializing in life insurance in Russia, with a 4.2% market share. Growth in collected premiums was 9.8% year-on-year in those nine months.