Assicurazioni Generali SpA, Europe’s third-largest insurer, will sell Swiss asset-management unit BSI Group as part of its disposal plan to boost capital.
“We will sell BSI for sure, we have plenty of time because our strategy goes to 2015,” Chief Executive Officer Mario Greco said in an interview with Francine Lacqua on Bloomberg Television at the World Economic Forum in Davos. “We are ahead of our plans and we have time to focus on the BSI sale, so we will sell it.”
Greco is selling non-strategic assets, including BSI, so it can focus on the company’s main business and internal growth. Italy’s biggest insurer is more than half way to achieving its goal of raising 4 billion euros ($5.4 billion) from disposals by 2015, after selling its U.S. reinsurance unit and Mexican businesses last year.
“We are not looking for acquisitions,” Greco said. “We want to restore the capital, we want to improve the sustainability of Generali’s strength. When this is done we’ll move on the new plan.”
–Editors: Dan Liefgreen, Frank Connelly