Insurer Nationale Suisse sells French unit to Axa
(Adds more detail, background)
ZURICH, July 23 (Reuters) - Nationale Suisse (NATN.S) is selling its French subsidiary to France's Axa (AXAF.PA), the Swiss insurer said on Monday, as consolidation among Europe's insurers heats up.
The sale of the unit -- called Nationale Suisse Assurances SA -- means Nationale is now pulling out of France altogether, after it sold its life insurance unit in 2006.
"(The) French subsidiary writes virtually only bulk business and has no prospects of realising a promising niche strategy with good profit potential in the medium term," Nationale said in a statement.
No financial details were disclosed for the sale of the unit, which had a premium volume of 101.5 million euros ($140.5 million) in 2006 and a workforce of 125.
Axa has shown strong interest in consolidation, and bought the Winterthur insurance unit from Credit Suisse (CSGN.VX) for 13.4 billion Swiss francs ($11.2 billion) in 2006.
Takeover speculation has been swirling around smaller Swiss insurers like Nationale Suisse, Baloise (BALN.VX), Swiss Life (SLHN.VX) and Helvetia (HELN.S).
((Reporting by Douwe Miedema, editing by Rory Channing; Reuters Messaging: rm://douwe.miedema.reuters.com@reuters.net e-mail: zurich.newsroom@news.reuters.com telephone: +41 (0)44 631 7354))
($1=.7224 Euro)
($1=1.199 Swiss Franc) Keywords: NATIONAL AXA/ =2 ZURICH
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