Mitsui Sumitomo to buy Amlin for £3.7m
Japanense firm Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Co. has agreed to buy UK insurance company Amlin PLC for £3.47 billion ($5.3 billion), in the latest consolidation of the global insurance market.
The companies said Amlin shareholders would receive 670 pence a share in cash, a 36% premium over its closing price Monday, as well as a previously announced 8.4 pence-a-share dividend.
The deal is the latest example of how Japanese insurers—both nonlife and life—are aggressively expanding overseas because of a declining population and sluggish car sales at home.
Among a spate of deals this year, Tokio Marine Holdings Inc., Japan’s largest nonlife insurer, said in June it would buy US-based HCC Insurance Holdings Inc. for $7.5 billion to boost its presence overseas.
Amlin operates in the Lloyd’s of London insurance market, where specialist insurance companies group together in syndicates to provide risk cover. Covering everything from art to racing horses, Amlin’s main operations are reinsurance, marine and aviation, and property and casualty cover.
