Rodrigo, Elías & Medrano Advises Wiese Aetna In Insurance Deal

Wiese Aetna Compañía de Seguros S.A. (Wiese Aetna) has sold its Property & Casualty insurance business to Rímac Internacional Compañía de Seguros y Reaseguros (Rímac). The deal, closed the last week of December, resulted in Rímac becoming the leading insurance company in Peru.

Wiese Aetna is partially owned by Grupo Wiese, a renowned local group, and ING Groep NV, the biggest financial services organisation in the Netherlands. ING and Grupo Wiese became partners after ING’s acquisition of Aetna International in year 2000. The deal arises as a consequence of both shareholders´ decision to strengthen Wiese Aetna life-insurance business in Perú, along with ING´s worldwide strategy to focus on two main business: pension funds and life-insurance.

The Rodrigo Elías & Medrano Abogados team advising Wiese Aetna was led by Gino Sangalli, Alberto Rebaza and Juan José Cárdenas and also included José Balta and Alex Córdova in charge of labor and tax matters, respectively.

Commenting on the trasaction, Alberto Rebaza said to Latin Counsel that “Several different structures were analyzed for the transaction from the legal, regulatory, labor and tax standpoints in order to conform with both buyer and seller requirements”. Rebaza added that the transaction was closed on a very tight schedule “in order to avoid any disruption in the market taking into account that both Wiese Aetna and Rímac are listed in the Lima Stock Exchange”.

Eduardo Morán and José Montañez acted as in-house legal advisor to Rímac. ING was represented by its US in-house counsel Laura Santirocco.

ING Financial Markets LLC acted as financial advisor for Wiese Aetna with a team involving New York-based Patrice Guiol and Fernando Garino and Lima-based María Jesús Hume, Esther de la Fuente and Alberto Ñecco.