WELLINGTON: Health insurer NIB has struck a deal to buy ANZ New Zealand’s OnePath Life health insurance business. NIB today said its New Zealand subsidiary will pay $22.6m for the business book. The purchase will be funded through existing cash.
The purchase of New Zealand’s fifth-largest health insurer will be immediately earnings per share accretive, NIB said. Managing director Mark Fitzgibbon said the purchase was consistent with the firm’s strategy to grow the New Zealand private health insurance market and its overall share.
Following the purchase, NIB NZ will provide health insurance to over 200,000 New Zealanders, covering more than 15 per cent of the insured population. OnePath, a fully-owned subsidiary of ANZ New Zealand, generated gross written premium of around $NZ27m through its medical insurance book last financial year.
ANZ Wealth New Zealand managing director John Body said the deal was not material to ANZ, but the sale will enable the bank to focus on its core life insurance business “with minimal impact on existing policyholders”.
NIB said the purchase will have a “negligible impact” on nib’s consolidated statutory operating profit this year, but will improve underlying consolidated operating profit, barring the $1.3m worth of costs associated with the deal. The deal is subject to approval by the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, though completion of the sale is expected in December. NIB shares fell 1.86 per cent to $3.17 against a benchmark index rise of 0.6 per cent.
