CMS advises MetLife on sale of operations in Poland and Greece to NN Group

International law firm CMS has advised MetLife on its agreement to sell its operations in Poland and Greece to NN Group, a Netherlands-based insurer, for total consideration of US $738 million, including an expected pre-closing dividend of US $43 million.

MetLife is among the world’s leading financial services companies, providing insurance, annuities, employee benefits and asset management to help its individual and institutional customers in more than 40 markets globally navigate their changing world. CMS has a long-standing relationship with MetLife, and this is the latest M&A transaction on which CMS has advised the company. 

The transaction was announced on 5 July 2021 and is subject to regulatory and antitrust approvals. The CMS team advised on all legal aspects of the transaction, including corporate, regulatory, competition, tax and employment. 

Chris Southorn, CMS Corporate/M&A partner at CMS, comments: “We are delighted to support MetLife on this strategic sale. The transaction further highlights CMS’s expertise in Insurance M&A and our ability to seamlessly deliver multi-jurisdictional deals, particularly in regulated sectors.”

The CMS team was led by London partners and insurance specialists Chris Southorn and Rizwan Rahman (Corporate) and Owen Ross (Financial Services), with support in London by Corinna Lee and Nathan Jest (Corporate); Graeme Young and Magnus Wallsten (Competition); Sam Dames (Tax); Paul Edmondson and Bhavesh Panchal (Regulatory); and Laura Lobb (Employment). Support in Poland was provided by Ewa Swiderska (Insurance), Grzegorsz Paczek (Corporate) and Sylwia Raszplewicz-Czyzewska (Finance). The team was supported in Greece by Rokas.

CMS is consistently ranked in the top three for both UK and European M&A by Bloomberg and Mergermarket and the firm won the Mid-Market M&A Law Firm of the Year award at the Mergermarket European M&A Awards in 2019. CMS has one of the largest Corporate teams in the world with the depth and breadth of expertise to support clients on any transaction.