Insurance Curator Cross‑Border Insurance Deals Surge as Legacy Carriers Chase Scale and Distribution in Mature Markets
Who: Major legacy insurers and strategic acquirers including Nippon Life, Generali, Allianz, Aviva, Arthur J. Gallagher, Brown & Brown and other global buyers; What: a marked rise in cross‑border mergers, strategic bolt‑on acquisitions and large brokerage purchases; When: accelerating through 2024–2025 into early 2026; Where: chiefly across mature markets — the United States, United Kingdom, Europe, Japan and Australia; Why: buyers are seeking scale, distribution, digital capability and capital efficiency to offset slow domestic growth and rising technology and regulatory costs. (bloomberg.com)
Legacy carriers and brokers from Europe, Asia and North America have pushed a wave of cross‑border deals in the past 18 months that executives and advisers say is reshaping how insurance is manufactured, distributed and financed in developed markets. The transactions range from large acquisitive moves by diversified insurers into new geographies and specialty lines, to headline brokerage purchases that concentrate distribution power in the hands of a shrinking number of global intermediaries. Industry advisers say the pattern is driven by the need to finance expensive technology upgrades, buy access to distribution or specialized underwriting expertise, and to rebalance portfolios for capital efficiency. (carriermanagement.com)
Deal flow and megadeals: concentrated value, steady volume
Although total deal counts fluctuate, the value of big transactions has climbed sharply. PwC’s insurance‑deals analysis and market trackers show that a small number of “megadeals”—transactions worth $1 billion or more—accounted for the majority of disclosed deal value in 2025. PwC noted multiple billion‑dollar transactions across property‑casualty, specialty and life markets as evidence that buyers are willing to pay for scale and distribution in attractive niches. (insurancejournal.com)
S&P Global Market Intelligence and other data providers point to a parallel trend in insurtech financing—fewer deals but higher aggregate value as strategic and private equity buyers concentrate on the most capable digital platforms—underscoring why incumbents prefer acquisition to in‑house build. S&P data showed insurtech investment more than doubled in 2025, even as deal counts declined, a sign that buyers are competitive for proven digital capabilities. (spglobal.com)
Case studies: strategic rationale in action
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Nippon Life and Resolution Life: Japan’s largest insurer moved decisively to bulk up outside its home market, agreeing to pay billions for Resolution Life, a consolidator of closed life books and specialist annuity assets. Nippon Life’s push into overseas life and asset management assets reflects a broader strategic necessity—Japan’s ageing population leaves domestic premium growth limited, while foreign life books offer scale and more attractive yields. (bloomberg.com)
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Generali and Conning: Generali’s completion of the Conning acquisition in 2024 — which folded a U.S. insurance‑focused asset manager into Generali’s investment arm — illustrated a pattern of insurers buying asset management and specialist platforms to secure distribution and investment capability for their life and annuity liabilities. Generali said the deal materially increased its assets under management and supported cross‑border distribution of investment products. (generali.com)
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Allianz and India: Allianz’s sale of its 26% stake in the Bajaj Allianz joint ventures to the Bajaj Group in March 2025 was presented as a strategic reallocation of capital and a reorientation of market approach in India. Allianz retains ambitions in India — the firm has pursued new local partnerships including plans announced later for a reinsurance joint venture — but the transaction underscores how legacy carriers are reshaping their footprints and partnerships in emerging but maturing markets. (finanzwire.com)
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Brokerage consolidation: Distribution businesses have been a focal point for cross‑border strategic deals. Arthur J. Gallagher’s agreement to acquire AssuredPartners and Brown & Brown’s acquisition of Accession Risk Management exemplify the concentration of brokerage power: large global brokers are buying to expand specialty capabilities, gain new distribution networks and achieve data scale that underpins modern underwriting and pricing. These transactions significantly alter competitive dynamics in mature markets. (prnewswire.com)
Why legacy carriers are buying abroad — four structural pressures
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Scale to finance technology and AI: Replacing legacy policy administration platforms, modernizing claims systems and underwriting with AI are multi‑year, multi‑hundred‑million‑dollar projects. Smaller and mid‑sized carriers cannot finance these investments independently; scale reduces per‑policy costs and accelerates returns on technology spend. Industry consultants say many buyers view acquisitions of digitally capable peers or insurtechs as the fastest route to capability. (oliverwyman.com)
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Distribution is strategic capital: Ownership or close partnerships with brokers, agencies and digital distribution platforms give insurers direct access to customers and data. In mature markets where customer acquisition costs are rising and brand loyalty is hard to build, control of distribution becomes a key defensive and offensive asset—hence the surge in broker and agency megadeals. (prnewswire.com)
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Portfolio reshaping and capital efficiency: Sellers and buyers are both using deals to optimize balance‑sheet structures—carving out non‑core businesses, selling minority stakes or aggregating closed books. Buyers can reduce embedded capital requirements and reallocate surplus to growth lines. In life and annuity markets, acquiring closed books or run‑off specialists is a way to scale fee income while achieving predictable cash flows. (bloomberg.com)
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Private equity and alternative capital: Record private‑equity dry powder and institutional appetite for yield have translated into large, PE‑backed insurance platform deals. PE’s presence raises valuations for the best assets and encourages strategic buyers to match offers to secure capabilities or distribution. S&P Global noted record private equity megadeals in 2025 and increasing PE interest in insurtech and insurance platforms. (spglobal.com)
Voices from the market
“Lloyd’s is a major source of untapped growth,” Aviva CEO Amanda Blanc told the Financial Times when explaining Aviva’s March 2024 return to the Lloyd’s market through its Probitas acquisition — a move framed around expanding access to international commercial lines. Industry leaders often express the same rationale: enter specialist markets or obtain established distribution rather than build from scratch. (ft.com)
Generali’s statement on Conning highlighted the asset‑management logic: the transaction “strengthens [our] capabilities with relevant high‑quality investment skills in U.S. and emerging‑market fixed income, alternative credit and U.S. real estate,” Generali said in announcing the completion. Executives described synergies in distribution and scale as primary expected benefits. (generali.com)
PwC’s U.S. insurance‑deals leader said dealmaking is likely to remain active as carriers use M&A to optimize capital and reshape portfolios; PwC’s 2025 and 2026 outlooks identified megadeals as the dominant source of deal value and expected further activity across P&C, life and distribution. (carriermanagement.com)
Regulatory and geopolitical headwinds: screening, remedies and politics
Cross‑border insurance transactions now face heightened regulatory scrutiny and political sensitivity. The expansion of national security and foreign investment screening regimes in the U.K., EU and elsewhere — and the increasing willingness of governments to use remedies, conditions or even golden‑share‑style protections — adds complexity to large inbound and outbound deals. Legal advisers and trade groups warn that while most transactions pass review, mandatory filings, potential remedies and home‑country politics require earlier and more detailed engagement with authorities. (womblebonddickinson.com)
Acquirers also must navigate insurance‑specific regulatory frameworks — solvency regimes, capital transfers and ring‑fencing rules differ across jurisdictions. That increases execution risk and can change deal economics, prompting many bidders to opt for minority stakes, joint ventures or phased transactions. Allianz’s tranching of the Bajaj transaction and the conditional structures used in other major deals illustrate how parties seek to balance regulatory timing and financial flexibility. (finanzwire.com)
Integration headaches and cultural risk
Even where regulators clear deals, integration presents operational and cultural risks. Combining different policy administration systems, aligning underwriting appetites and retaining distribution relationships are recurring hurdles. Brokers and MGAs, in particular, bring entrepreneurially run businesses whose value often lies in producers and relationships; buyer‑side analysts caution that poor integration can undercut expected synergies. Industry consultants stress that many recent buyers are deliberately structuring deals to keep acquired brands and management teams in place as a way to preserve value. (prnewswire.com)
What the numbers say about distribution and insurtech
Data from market intelligence firms show a marked increase in large‑value transactions in 2024–2025 while insurtech funding patterns shifted toward fewer, larger strategic investments. S&P Global reported that private equity and insurtech investment reached record levels in aggregate value in 2025, even as the number of insurtech deals fell—evidence that incumbents and PE were competing for the same scarce, high‑quality digital assets. PwC’s industry analytics for 2025 indicate that megadeals dominated deal value in the sector. Those patterns underline why scale and distribution are now central to strategy. (spglobal.com)
Outlook: more targeted cross‑border deals, not a free‑for‑all
Dealmakers, advisers and industry analysts interviewed in public briefings and reports say the next phase of consolidation will be more selective. Rather than a broad buying spree, strategic buyers will likely pursue:
- Bolt‑on acquisitions to densify distribution in specific geographies or lines. (oliverwyman.com)
- Specialist platform purchases (MGAs, program managers, digital distribution) where data, speed‑to‑market and underwriting expertise can be quickly integrated. (spglobal.com)
- Portfolio reshaping—carve‑outs and run‑off plays—where surplus capital can be redeployed into growth or returned to shareholders. (bloomberg.com)
Regulatory risk and geopolitical noise will temper cross‑border appetite for certain buyers and assets, and pricing will reflect that friction. Still, PwC and other advisers forecast further megadeals and steady transactional activity into 2026 as insurers weigh the cost of going it alone against the price of buying scale. (carriermanagement.com)
Conclusion
The recent wave of cross‑border insurance deals among legacy carriers and brokers reflects a strategic recalibration: scale and distribution are now premium assets in mature markets where growth is constrained, technology demands are high and regulatory oversight is strict. For buyers, cross‑border acquisitions offer a faster, cleaner path to capability and market access than organic build; for sellers and investors, the current environment can command premium valuations. As the sector moves from a period of opportunistic megadeals to more disciplined, integration‑focused transactions, the winners will likely be those that combine careful regulatory planning with credible integration playbooks and a clear vision of how acquired distribution and digital assets translate to margin and growth. (insurancejournal.com)
Sources: reporting and analysis from PwC, S&P Global Market Intelligence, Generali, Allianz, Aviva/Financial Times, Bloomberg, Arthur J. Gallagher and other company filings and industry press coverage. (carriermanagement.com)