Several newspapers, including La Lettre de l’Expansion, have echoed the interest of the Allianz insurer in acquiring the brokerage business of Vilavi, ex-Assu 2000 caught up in a scandal last year. Without confirming, Allianz said this Friday attached to the “sustainability of the activity” of Vilavi.
Introducing itself as a “long-standing partner”, Allianz stressed in a statement that it was attentive to “the sustainability of the activity of a major broker that employs 1,800 people and has hundreds of thousands of policyholders, including many clients of Allianz France and Allianz Partners.”
The prospect of a sale outlined last November
The Vilavi group entered a zone of strong turbulence about a year ago: its founder, Jacques Bouthier, was jailed and prosecuted for “trafficking in human beings” and “rape of a minor.” Landed at the beginning of the scandal, the wealthy businessman is also being prosecuted in France for conspiracy to commit a crime and kidnapping in an organized gang. In Morocco, one of the main countries where the brokerage group operates, it is also the subject of a major investigation for sexual harassment. His successor Michael Hörr, a former Allianz employee, outlined last November the prospect of a sale of the group at the end of 2023.
“If the hypothesis of a change in the shareholding, at the end of 2023, is indeed an option about which the Vilavi group has already communicated, the group does not want to comment on what today are just market rumors,” said a spokeswoman. of the company. Friday.
Source: BFM TV
