Norton Rose Fulbright has advised the Groupe APICIL (APICIL) on its acquisition of Legal & General Holdings (France) S.A. (Legal & General France).

Established in 1938, APICIL is the fifth largest health and protection mutual and paritarian insurer in France, with €2,8 billion in premiums in 2014. Legal & General France has 19 branches and is a specialist player in unit-linked savings and group risk, with an established presence in the high net worth savings market and the group health and protection market. Legal & General has a client base of 37,000 customers and 4,000 group risk customers, with €371.8m in savings premiums and €214.9m in group risk premiums.

The deal, which closed on January 1, 2016, will accelerate APICIL’s growth in two strategic markets: life insurance and medical, death and disability insurance. It will allow APICIL to enhance individual insurance contributions up to €2 billion and customer assets up to €13 billion in 2016. This transaction follows APICIL’s acquisition of Skandia's operations in France and Luxembourg last year

The Norton Rose Fulbright team that advised APICIL was led by corporate partner Bénédicte Denis, assisted by of counsel Orsolya Hegedus and associates Diane Odier and Charlotte Grolimund. Partner Roberto Cristofolini together with associates Aurélie Pélisson and Louis Soleranski advised on the banking regulatory and asset management aspects of the deal.

Périclès Avocats, led by partners Ludovic Bellein, Eric Trimolet and Christèle Morand, advised APICIL on some due diligence aspects of transaction.