Zurich Financial actively looking for acquisitions

By Kirby Chien

TIANJIN (Reuters) - Zurich Financial Services AG (ZURN.VX) is actively looking for acquisition targets amid a global financial crisis, as it seeks to grow in Asia, Latin America and Central Europe.

"We are looking constantly at acquisitions and there's a lot of insurance businesses coming to the market," Dieter Wemmer, the firm's chief financial officer, told Reuters on the sidelines of an economic conference.

Potential targets could come from banks needing to sell non-core insurance subsidiaries, the dismantling of American International Group (AIG.N) and other insurance companies that have wobbly balance sheets, said Wemmer.

"One of the spillovers of the financial crisis is clearly that there will be more insurance assets being traded," he said.

Zurich has spent $3 billion this year on acquisitions, and Wemmer said companies with solid balance sheets would be able to find financing should an acquisition opportunity arise.

"If there is something attractive you always find" a way to finance it, he said.

Zurich Financial earlier this month said it had exposure of $250 million to Lehman Brothers LEH.N unsecured debt.

Wemmer also said his company had about $50 million exposure to the preferred stock of U.S. mortgage backing agencies Freddie Mac (FRE.N) and Fannie Mae (FNM.N), and noted that writedowns were inevitable.

However, he said he was satisfied with the overall quality of Zurich's investment portfolio. "In relation to a $200 billion portfolio, I think it is an acceptable number," he said.

In July, Zurich said it held U.S. agency debt positions totalling $9.4 billion, $8.3 billion of which were exposure to the debt of U.S. mortgage financiers Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.

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($=6.82 yuan)

(Editing by Ian Geoghegan)