Aviva has reached an agreement with Innova Capital to acquire 100% of Expander Advisors with the aim of boosting its multi-channel distribution strategy in Poland, one of the life insurance firm’s growth markets. Expander is the second-largest network of independent financial advisers in Poland and has been an active provider of structured products since 2008, mostly via life insurance-wrapped structured investments.
The transaction is subject to anti-trust approval by Poland’s Competition and Consumer Protection Office (Urzęd Ochrony Konkurencji i Konsumentów) which is expected at the beginning of July, said Piotr Nowak, director of investment and life products at Expander Advissrs. “Having a new stake-holder will not change our product offering,” said Nowak. “The Expander brand is well established in the market, [so] the company will keep its name as well as its product offerings.”
According to Nowak, although Aviva is not active in the domestic structured product market yet, it sees this segment very positively and in the long-term future will probably expand in this sector as it is aware of its potential.
“In the medium term, however, we will continue to co-operate with various life insurance partners, like Warta, MetLife, ING and our approach will stay to be independent,” said Nowak.
Most recently, Expander has been developing its structured products together with Warta, including its latest product Prestiżowa Trzydziestka, which is currently available for subscription. “Investors’ demand for this product is high and as of today we have already raised around PLN17m (€4m),” said Nowak. “The dynamic of sales is positive and with three weeks remaining until the end of the subscription I expect to raise around PLN40m (€9.5m).”
The new life endowment policy Prestiżowa Trzydziestka is also the first product in Poland to be referenced to the Solactive Ethical Europe Equity Index, which has been featured in 62 sustainable/ethical investments across jurisdictions.
“The appeal of this index for Polish investors, however, is mostly the European theme as the index selects 30 European shares, while the ethical factor comes as element number two as in Poland this theme is not much developed yet, compared with in Western Europe,” said Nowak.
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