January 22 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria-based DZI Life Insurance, owned by Belgium's KBC Group, is seeking the approval of the competition authority to acquire full ownership of Sofia-based UBB-MetLife Life Insurance Company, a notice posted on the website of the regulator reads.
As Belgium's KBC Group is already majority owner of UBB-MetLife Life Insurance Company, the deal will not affect competition on the local insurance market, according to the notice posted on the website of the Commission for Protection of Competition on Friday.
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Last week, DZI Life Insurance received approval from the Financial Supervision Commission (FSC) to acquire full ownership of UBB-MetLife Life Insurance Company.
In December, KBC Group said it agreed to acquire MetLife's 40% stake in their Bulgaria-registered life insurance joint venture UBB-MetLife Life Insurance Company, thus achieving full ownership of the company.
In June, as part of KBC’s acquisition of Bulgaria's United Bulgarian Bank (UBB) and Interlease, KBC acquired 60% of UBB-MetLife Life Insurance Company. The life insurance products of the company are exclusively distributed via UBB's branches.
UBB-MetLife Life Insurance Company has a share of 10% of the Bulgarian life insurance market, according to FSC data.
Combined, DZI and UBB-MetLife Life Insurance Company will have a market share of 21% of the Bulgarian life insurance market.
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