Bicecorp to buy Sura's Chilean annuities business

Chile-based financial services group Bicecorp said it agreed to buy the Chilean annuities business from Colombian insurance and pension giant Grupo Sura.

Following a local press report in December saying Sura was considering selling assets in Chile, the group confirmed it may sell the annuities operations but not its life insurance business.

In a regulatory filing on Wednesday, Bicecorp said it would acquire Sura's annuities business for 5.17mn of Chile's inflation-linked unit (UF), which amounts to approximately US$230mn.

The transaction is subject to several conditions, including the re-organization of Sura's life insurance subsidiary, an anti-trust evaluation and approval from the country's financial market commission, said Bicecorp.

A new company called NewCo will be created to assume the annuities business from the Sura life unit. When all approvals are secured, Bicecorp will acquire NewCo and make it part of its own life insurance subsidiary Bice Vida, which is a large annuities player.

Bicecorp is one of the biggest financial services groups in Chile, with subsidiaries that are active in the markets of commercial banking, investment banking, mortgage lending, auto financing, factoring, securitizations and insurance.

In 2011, Sura became one of the biggest insurance and pension players in Latin America through its acquisition the pension, life insurance and asset management units in the region of Dutch group ING.