Global law firm Freshfields has advised Cinven on the Sale of Viridium Group to a consortium comprising Allianz, BlackRock, T&D Holdings, HannoverRE and Generali. The transaction is subject to regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions.

With €67bn of assets under management, 3.4m policies and about 900 highly specialised employees, Viridium is a leading life insurance consolidator, making existing life policies more attractive and creating tangible value for its customers and shareholders.

Cinven is a leading international private equity firm focused on building world-class global and European companies. The company has offices in London, New York, Frankfurt, Paris, Milan, Madrid, Guernsey and Luxembourg.

In 2014, the Cinven Funds invested in Heidelberger Leben, a specialist local provider of retirement and life insurance products in Germany, which was later renamed Viridium Group. With Cinven’s support, Viridium has, among other things, implemented an improved asset management strategy with improved returns to customers and invested more than €700m in a single state-of-the-art platform across technology and operations. Today the company has become one of the largest and most advanced life insurance consolidation platforms globally.

The Freshfields team was led by Partners Wessel Heukamp, Verena Nosch (both Corporate/M&A, Munich), Counsel David Schwintowski (Corporate/M&A, Singapore), Principal Associate Lorenz Koffka (Corporate M&A, Hamburg) and Associate Thimo Brand (Corporate/M&A, Munich) and also included:

• Partners: David Beutel (Tax, Munich), Thomas Granetzny, Ulrich Sittard (both Employment Law, Düsseldorf), Martin McElwee (Antitrust, London), Aled Batey (Finance, London)
• Counsel: Lukas Pomaroli (Compliance, Vienna), Martin Rehberg (Tax, Munich)
• Principal Associates: Mathilde Beaumunier (Antitrust, Berlin), Anna Dominke (Frankfurt), Maximilian Zellerhoff (Hamburg, both Corporate/M&A), Theresa Kreft (Finance, Munich), Moritz Lehmann (Tax, Munich), Michael Schwaab (Data, Frankfurt), Julia Horbach (Finance, London)
• Associates: Sonam Cheema (Finance, London), Tobias Kalb (Employment Law, Munich), Tino Haupt, Marc Lebioda, Nicolas Ormanns, Franz Pechmann, Jonas Regener, Jieyue Shi (all Corporate/M&A, Munich), Anna Smith (Antitrust, London)