New York: Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway is interested in buying assets that Italian insurer Unipol must sell as part of a merger with peer Fondiaria-SAI, business daily Il Sole 24 Ore said yesterday.
The paper said Berkshire was eyeing commercial assets belonging to Milano Assicurazioni, a unit controlled by Fondiaria.
Unipol has been forced by Italy’s anti-trust authority to sell portfolio assets with premiums totaling around ¤1.7bn ($2.2bn) as part of its rescue of the Fondiaria-SAI group.
The merger, which will create Italy’s No. 2 insurer, is expected to close by the end of the year.
Unipol CEO Carlo Cimbri said in May there had been 10-15 expressions of interest for the assets, including from Allianz, Axa, Aviva and Zurich.
Insurance accounted for roughly a quarter of Berkshire’s revenues in 2012. Buffett’s investments are viewed by many investors as a seal of approval from one of the world’s most respected businessmen. Non-binding offers for the Unipol assets are expected next Friday, Il Sole said.
Neither Unipol nor Berkshire Hathaway Inc were immediately available for a comment.
Reuters
