On the evening of the 27th, Sompo Holdings announced its acquisition of Aspen Insurance Holdings, a property and casualty insurance company primarily operating in the United States. The total purchase amount will be approximately 520 billion yen.
Sompo will acquire all shares of Aspen, which is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, at $37.50 per share. This price represents a 16% premium over Aspen’s closing price on the 26th. Sompo plans to complete the acquisition process by the first half of 2026, using its internal funds for the purchase.
This marks Sompo’s largest acquisition since it bought another major firm in 2014. Faced with a shrinking domestic market due to population decline, Sompo aims to expand its global insurance business and enhance stable revenue through reinsurance and other strategies.
In response to recent issues in Japan’s insurance industry involving pre-arranged adjustments of corporate insurance premiums, local companies, including Sompo, have announced plans to eliminate their cross-shareholdings to zero. To this end, Sompo has already sold over 500 billion yen worth of strategic shareholdings, and there is considerable interest in how it will allocate the proceeds.
by MagazineKey4532