Goldman hires Barclays banker Bion to ride insurance deal boom -memo

UNIQA Insurance AG

12/11/2020 06:00

By Pamela Barbaglia
    LONDON, Nov 12 (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs  GS.N  has poached
Barclays' insurance banker Marguerite Bion to win more business
from Europe's biggest insurers as industry consolidation heats
up amid anaemic profitability and tightening regulation.
    Bion, who started her career at Citigroup  C.N  in 2001 and
spent the last decade at Barclays  BARC.L , will join Goldman in
February as a London-based managing director in its EMEA
financial institution group (FIG), reporting to European FIG
head Dirk Lievens, according to a memo seen by Reuters.
    French-born Bion has advised continental European insurers,
including the likes of France's AXA  AXAF.PA , Switzerland's
Zurich Insurance Group  ZURN.S  and Germany's Allianz  ALVG.DE 
on a variety of deals and will continue overseeing their M&A
plans in her new role at Goldman.
    Her appointment comes amid a flurry of transactions in the
insurance industry as low interest rates and weak profits are
pressuring companies to seek domestic deal synergies while
hunting for growth abroad.
    Goldman Sachs is currently advising British insurer RSA
 RSA.L  on a 7.2 billion pound takeover approach from a
consortium of Canadian insurer Intact Financial and Danish
insurer Tryg.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N2HR2DB
    Bion will mainly focus on French and European insurance
accounts, building on Goldman's recent advisory work for the
likes of AXA which appointed the Wall Street bank to sell its
Central and Eastern European business to Austrian insurer Uniqa
in February.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N2A76C9

 (Reporting by Pamela Barbaglia in London;
Editing by Marguerita Choy)
 ((pamela.barbaglia@thomsonreuters.com;  +442075427723; Reuters
Messaging: pamela.barbaglia.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))