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Dai-ichi Life Holdings is set to close a deal for Westpac’s life insurance unit that could value the company at around $ 1 billion ($ 1.3 billion), according to people with knowledge of the topic.
Dai-ichi Life is in exclusive talks with Australia’s second-largest bank and an announcement could come as soon as this month, people said, asking not to be identified as the talks are private.
Westpac appointed advisers earlier this year to try to sell the business. Credit:Attila Caesar
No final decision has been made and talks could still fail, the people said. Representatives for Dai-Ichi Life and Westpac declined to comment.
Westpac appointed advisers to help sell the life insurance business earlier this year as part of a strategy to divest non-core assets to focus on banking in Australia. It comes after a string of scandals that have led to a record fine of $ 1.3 billion for Westpac to settle the country’s biggest violation of anti-money laundering laws.
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Westpac has since sold its property and casualty insurance business to Germany’s Allianz SE for $ 725 million and has also agreed to sell its Pacific unit to Kina Securities Ltd. for no less than $ 420 million.
Profits from the life insurance business are expected to remain under pressure, Westpac told investors in November. The business posted a profit of 229 million dollars for the 2020 fiscal year before depreciations.
Bloomberg
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