Around 140,000 people with life or pension policies could find themselves with a new insurer.
Frankfurter Leben, a German insurer whose parent is Fosun International Ltd., is in advanced talks to take over Athora Holding Ltd.'s German operation, according to people close to the negotiations. The people asked not to be identified because the process is private.
"An agreement could be announced before the month is over," some of the people said, adding: "Negotiations could still collapse, other suitors could enter the process, and a final accord is not assured."
Neither Frankfurter Leben nor Athora would make a statement.
Athora's German closed book includes traditional life, unit-linked and pension products, and the unit has more than 100 employees.
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After struggling to expand in Germany, Athora has been weighing potential paths for that business, with a sale among the options. Bloomberg News reported in January that the company was considering a disposal. By contrast, Frankfurter Leben handles about 700,000 insurance contracts and an investment portfolio of approximately €13 billion.
Earlier this year, Athora announced it would relocate its headquarters from Bermuda to the UK. The relocation was announced as Athora completed its takeover of Pension Insurance Corp. in Britain, a deal that nearly doubled the company's managed assets to €139 billion. Apollo Global Management Inc. holds about 24.5% of Athora.
Selling the German book would be another step in Athora's transformation after that acquisition. The company could focus on areas with stronger growth prospects, while Frankfurter Leben would add a sizable batch of older policies to its consolidation portfolio. In that model, buyers typically manage existing contracts for profit rather than write new ones.
For Athora, a sale would remove a business it has struggled to expand and sharpen the focus on Britain following the Pension Insurance Corp. takeover and the planned move of its headquarters to the UK. The transaction would also test how German supervisors approach a life-insurance owner whose parent company is Fosun International.
European life insurers have increasingly used run-off sales to shed portfolios they no longer want to manage. Buyers such as Frankfurter Leben specialize in running down those closed blocks of policies. A run-off sale typically allows the seller to hand over old policies and the capital supporting them, while the buyer earns by managing the obligations.
Frankfurter Leben already follows that model, so Athora's closed German book fits within its strategy. For China's Fosun, which controls Frankfurter Leben, the transaction would deepen its exposure to the European life insurance sector at a time when regulators are paying closer attention to who owns these businesses.
Since the 2023 collapse of Italy's Eurovita, whose prior owner was the British buyout firm Cinven, European regulators have been paying closer attention to life-insurance owners and sector deals. That episode raised concerns about the financial resilience of life insurers held by private-equity groups and about how closed books are supervised. Any transaction involving Athora's German unit will therefore be watched closely by authorities responsible for protecting policyholders.
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