NN Group to buy Delta Lloyd for 2.5 billion euros

The largest Dutch insurer NN Group on Friday raised its proposed bid for peer Delta Lloyd slightly, winning support from the latter's boards for a takeover valuing the company at around 2.5 billion euros ($2.61 billion). Delta Lloyd, which had rejected an initial unsolicited 5.30 euro per share offer as insufficient, has accepted the current offer that values it at 5.40 per share. NN Group said it will pay in a mix of cash and debt and expects a 10 percent return on investment on the deal, which will reduce its solvency to 189 percent.

As of the second quarter, NN Group's solvency was 252 percent.The two insurers expect to together be a strong player in the fields of pensions, insurance and asset management in the Netherlands and Belgium. They also expect to have a strong financial position once merged.

How Delta Lloyd will work under the wings of NN has yet to be determined. Van Noordaa did announce that he will step down as CEO of Delta Lloyd after the completion of the deal, expected to be in the second quarter of next year. Trade unions worry that the merger will mean many jobs lost. NN currently employs 11,500 people and Delta Lloyd employs 4,150. Both companies would have had to cut jobs in the coming years without the merger.