Aetna buys international insurance specialist

InterGlobal acquisition

Aetna’s acquisition of InterGlobal will be finalised next year.

Aetna International has announced it has agreed to acquire UK-based InterGlobal from a group led by its majority shareholder, Alchemy Partner.

The acquisition will expand Aetna’s reach in growing markets and boost their current international membership of 500,000. InterGlobal has over 65,000 members around the world, and specializes in both group and individual iPMI plans in the Middle East, Europe, Asia, and Africa.

“The addition of InterGlobal to Aetna’s international business will expand our footprint in fast-growing geographies, increase our membership and enhance our international penetration with individual, small and mid-sized business customers,” said Mark T. Bertolini, Aetna chairman, CEO and president.

“This acquisition will increase our presence in the marketplace for international private medical insurance where growth is being driven by dynamics such as the continued globalization of companies of all sizes, the growing population of high net worth individuals in emerging economies and reform efforts by governments around the world to increase access to health care.”

The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2014, and be neutral to Aenta’s financial results for 2014. The terms of the transaction have not been released.

InterGlobal makes use of an extensive network of local suppliers and its own distribution licences to maintain its strong presence in the Middle East, Asia, and Africa. Around 300 InterGlobal employees are based in offices in the UK, Singapore and Dubai, and its network of providers numbers more than 3,000 mostly ancillary and out-patient services.

Richard di Benedetto, president of Aetna International, added, “InterGlobal is well-established in the high-growth private medical insurance regions of the Middle East, Asia and Africa through a distribution model that incorporates local strategic partners and its own licenses.

“These strategic arrangements will allow us to offer our health care solutions locally to customers in about a dozen additional countries in those regions. InterGlobal also shares our commitment to customer focus and service excellence.”