Reinsurance as Deal Enabler: How risk transfer can reshape insurance M&A

Joachim Mathe (Head of Special Markets, VIG Re) |

Introduction: M&A is not really about price

European insurance M&A has regained momentum. Since 2022, the number of transactions has risen from 318 to 430 and aggregate deal value from 23 billion Euro to 66 billion Euro, representing a CAGR of 11% <1>. Europe is experiencing its strongest wave of insurance consolidation in more than a decade.

The drivers are diverse: scale, capability acquisition, cross-border diversification, distribution access, technology, demographic change and capital efficiency. Yet transactions rarely fail because of strategy alone. They fail because of risk, capital, cultural integration or execution uncertainty.

At VIG Re, this development contributed to the establishment of our Special Markets and Special Risk Solutions platform. Clients increasingly seek non-traditional reinsurance structures that go beyond conventional risk transfer to support capital optimisation, portfolio transformation and transaction execution. Reinsurance is moving upstream in strategic decisionmaking, from post-transaction