Austria’s Vienna Insurance Group (VIG) said on Friday that the European Commission has granted an antitrust clearance to the group’s acquisition of the business of Dutch peer Aegon in Romania, Turkey, Hungary and Poland, according to SeeNews.
The transaction, however, is still blocked by a decision of the Hungarian interior ministry, sent at the beginning of April, which prohibits the planned acquisition by a foreign company, VIG said in a statement.
The necessary regulatory and competition law approvals are currently being obtained, VIG also said, adding that it has already received the green light for the deal from the Turkish competition authority.
„The positive decision of the European Commission is an important step and we also consider the approval under competition law as a positive sign for further coordination. We are still in a constructive dialogue with the Hungarian Ministry of Finance to clarify possibilities for a positive conclusion of the acquisition,” said VIG’s CEO, Elisabeth Stadler in a statement.
For the formal closing of the transaction, the processes to obtain the necessary regulatory approvals from the national authorities are ongoing, VIG’s statement reads.
At the end of 2020, VIG signed a deal to buy Aegon’s insurance companies, pension funds, asset management and service companies in Romania, Turkey, Hungary and Poland for €830mln. The target companies serve a total of €4.5mln customers and have total premiums of around €600mln and a managed pension fund volume of around €5bln, VIG said at the time.
Elsewhere in Southeast Europe, VIG operates in Serbia, Moldova, Bulgaria, Albania, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Bosnia and Croatia.