Last year saw a slowing in the number of mergers and acquisitions in all sectors among insurance companies globally, according to a new study from Conning.
The study, "Global Insurer Mergers & Acquisitions: Activity Slows, but Pressures Remain" tracks and analyzes both U.S. and non-U.S. insurer M&A activity across property-casualty, life-annuity and health insurance sectors, and finds that while for the year there were fewer transactions with values over $1 billion, "two key health transactions from 2015 were either cancelled or are very unlikely to be completed."
Within the health insurance sector, the Anthem/Cigna and Aetna/Humana mergers, it says, "dominated the health insurance landscape in 2016," although neither one actually came to pass — "primarily due to regulatory antitrust concerns related to competition and consumer choice." In addition, it characterized the Anthem/Cigna transaction as remarkable for the "contentious relationship between the counterparties." Anthem and Cigna, it adds, are already pursuing their own individual strategies, including M&A.
Recommended For You
With the potential change or repeal of the Affordable Care Act looming over its head, the health insurance industry as a whole backed off from M&A transactions involving comprehensive insurance. However, there was continued selected consolidation activity in government-focused programs, both Medicare and Medicaid, in particular Medicare transactions.
That said, health insurance M&A activity was very limited, with no insurer transaction greater than $500 million. The lack of activity, the report adds, "was due to the focus on the issues accompanying the mergers of four of the largest companies and continued regulatory uncertainty" — the latter, of course, due to the unknowns surrounding the design and implementation of a new health care framework. That's expected to continue in 2017.
UnitedHealth, for its part, continued its expansion into various health care sectors, buying up provider networks, health savings account platforms and smaller insurers. "This broad-based strategy," the report says, "leaves the company well positioned to provide service and react to changes in the environment."
Life insurance M&A slowed, with just two of the largest transactions involving North American targets, and the property-casualty sector led the M&A activity, the report says, "with a particular focus on specialty assets. The activity was marked by a selected number of insurers playing offense and defense."
© 2025 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
