Swiss Life buys french firm

Swiss Life shares were down one Swiss franc in early trading to 968 in a stable Swiss market. Swiss Life said in its statement the acquisition would make it one of the three leaders in the French health market. Privately-owned Lloyd Continental has premium volume of about three billion French francs and is one of the largest private insurance companies operating in the French health sector.

On Monday, the Swiss company said it would pay around 1.37 billion Swiss francs forSumitomo’s stake in Gotthard and use it as a building block in its new strategy to grow in asset management. Swiss Life chief executive Manfred Zobl said then that the company’s broad strategic goals were to focus on the long-term savings market, expand in asset gathering and asset management, grow aggressively in Europe, expand multi-distribution channels and maintain an international network for multinational clients.

The two successive acquisition moves come on the heels of UBS AG’s decision to sell off its 25 per cent stake in the Swiss insurer, which it increasingly sees as a rival. Swiss Life’s shares had fallen sharply on Friday after news of the UBS sale plan as speculative investors rushed for the exits, wondering how the insurer would fare without a strong partner.