By Amy-Jo Crowley and Alexander Hübner
LONDON (Reuters) -Belgian insurer Ageas has retained advisors to explore a bid for British motor and home insurer esure, four people familiar with the matter told Reuters, as part of plans to consolidate the UK personal lines market.
Germany’s Allianz has also been working on an offer for esure in recent weeks, said two of the people, speaking on condition of anonymity.
There will only be one main round of bidding, with a deadline in the next few weeks, the third person said, cautioning that a deal is not guaranteed.
Bids for esure, owned by private equity firm Bain Capital, could be around 1.5 billion pounds ($1.94 billion), a fifth person said on Tuesday. All five people were speaking on condition of anonymity because the process is private.
Spokespeople for Bain, Ageas, Allianz and esure declined to comment.
The UK insurance market has been consolidating, with Britain’s Aviva seeking regulatory clearances on its 3.7 billion pound acquisition of Direct Line that was agreed last December.
Ageas pursued Direct Line before it was taken over by Aviva and has said it wants to expand in UK general insurance.
Esure is smaller than Direct Line and uses the same technology platform as Ageas, which makes the target particularly attractive to Ageas, sources previously told Reuters.
For Allianz, buying esure would expand its presence in the UK market, after it bought the general insurance businesses of L&G and LV= in 2019. Allianz is also in exclusive talks to acquire Viridium in a $3 billion plus deal, according to the Wall Street Journal. Allianz declined to comment on the report.
Esure, whose products include careful driver brand Sheilas’ Wheels, was formed in 2000 by former Direct Line founder Peter Wood. Bain took esure private in a 1.21 billion pound deal in 2018 after the company was listed on the London Stock Exchange in 2013.
($1 = 0.7732 pounds)
(Reporting by Amy-Jo Crowley and Alexander Huebner, editing by Anousha Sakoui, Tomasz Janowski and Susan Fenton)
