Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, Cravath, Swaine & Moore and Debevoise & Plimpton have scored advisory roles on Japan’s Sumitomo Life Insurance Co’s agreement to buy U.S. insurer Symetra Financial Corp for about $3.8 billion, the latest in a series of multi-billion deals featuring Japanese insurers.
Sumitomo Life, Japan’s fourth-largest life insurer with 27 trillion yen ($216.2 billion) in assets, will pay $32 per share for Symetra, representing a 32 percent premium to the U.S. company’s average share price in the past month.
The Japanese company said the acquisition of Symetra will boost the proportion of its overseas business to 14 percent in premium revenue and 8 percent in adjusted profits, based on its previous year’s results.
Founded in 1957, Symetra provides employee benefits, annuities and life insurance. It is partly owned by Berkshire Hathaway and White Mountains Insurance Group, a holding company of several financial services companies.
Simpson Thacher advised Sumitomo Life on the deal, led by New York M&A partner Gary Horowitz. He was assisted by David Sneider in Tokyo, and executive compensation and employee benefits partner David Rubinsky and Tax partner Robert Holo in New York.
Cravath advised Symetra, led by New York corporate partners Erik Tavzel and Joseph Zavaglia, with support from executive compensation and benefit partner Eric Hilfers and tax partner Christopher Fargo.
Morgan Stanley acted as financial advisor to Symetra, and was represented by Debevoise & Plimpton New York corporate partners Nicholas Potter and Marilyn Lion.
With weak growth prospects at home due to a rapidly ageing population, Japanese insurers have been actively pursuing overseas acquisition opportunities for future growth.
In June, Tokio Marine Holdings Inc agreed to buy U.S. insurer HCC Insurance Holdings Inc for $7.5 billion, in what is the biggest M&A deal so far this year by a Japanese company. In July, Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance purchased U.S.-based StanCorp Financial Group for $5 billion. And in February, Dai-ichi Life Insurance Co completed a $5.6 billion acquisition of Protective Life, a mid-sized U.S. life insurance firm.
