Earlier in September, Transatlantic rejected a merger with Allied World Assurance and sale talks with Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B) ended leaving Validus Holdings(VR) as the only current bidder for the New York- based insurer with a market cap of roughly $3 billion. Validus made a hostile $2.96 billion bid for Transatlantic in July. On Monday, Transatlantic said it had started discussions with a third party about a sale.
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Jester, a key official who worked under Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. in the A.I.G bailout and the wider efforts that Treasury made during the heat of the financial crisis, was also a banker at Goldman Sachs(GS) prior to his public sector work. Brandon was CEO of General Re, a company owned by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway from 2000 until 2008, and was seen to be a candidate to take over for Buffett if he were to retire. Brandon resigned from General Re after the Securities and Exchanges Commission pursued charges against General Re and American International Group executives over transactions to hide losses. Brandon was never personally charged by the SEC.It is still to be seen what Jester and Brandon's bid for Transatlantic will be. Transatlantic shares are up 1.16% to $49 a share in pre-market trading.Axa Group, the French insurer said that it was looking into strategic options for its private equity business, a sign of a potential sale. A sale of the unit would be a change in strategy for the insurance giant with over 200,000 employees globally and annual revenue of more than $100 billion. Previously the insurer had been building up its private equity capabilities. It bought a private equity portfolio from Citigroup(C) this summer for $1.7 billion and a $1.9 billion portfolio from Bank of America(BAC) in 2010. Axa's private equity division is based in Paris and has roughly $27 billion in investor assets under its management. It invests money for pension funds, sovereign wealth funds and Axa assets by taking stakes in European buyout funds, mid-cap companies and infrastructure projects, according to Bloomberg.
On Wednesday, Bloomberg reported that KKR(KKR), the private equity firm founded by Henry Kravis, is one of the potential bidders for Axa's 15-year old private equity division valued at close to $680 million.
In a statement, the company said "The AXA Group has always been opportunistic in its approach to strategic transactions and will decide whether or not to pursue a transaction only after completion of the strategic review." It indicates the company management and board may have just begun looking at potential bids for the private equity arm.
KKR and other private equity companies like The Carlyle group have, in recent years, added private equity assets to manage as a business line in addition to their traditional expertise of buying controlling stakes in public and private companies.Readers Also Like: 10 Stocks That May Outperform Through 201110 Best-Performing S&P 500 Stocks of 2011
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