Generali has received bids from Bermuda-based Athene Holding Ltd. and Cinven Ltd.'s Viridium Group GmbH & Co. KG for its €40 billion German life insurance portfolio Generali Leben, "people with knowledge of the matter" told Bloomberg News.
U.S. lender Morgan Stanley is helping the Italian insurer evaluate the bids for the portfolio, which could be worth nearly $1 billion, according to the sources, who noted that a final decision on the sale has not been made and said other interested bidders could emerge.
In September 2017, the Italian insurer unveiled a strategic plan for its operations in Germany, involving putting Generali Leben into run-off in the first quarter of 2018.
In January, Giovanni Liverani, Generali's head of German operations told local publication Sueddeutsche Zeitung that the company was assessing whether to sell Generali Leben or to wind it down, according to the March 1 Bloomberg report.
