Aetna To Acquire U.K. Medical Insurer InterGlobal

Nov. 25--Aetna has agreed to acquire InterGlobal, a private medical insurer serving customers in Europe, Asia and Africa, the Hartford-based health insurer announced Monday.

Aetna did not disclose terms of the acquisition, from a group led by Alchemy Partners, the majority shareholder. The transaction, Aetna said, is expected to close in the first half of next year with financing from "available resources."

InterGlobal has about 300 employees, mostly in the United Kingdom, Dubai and Singapore, a network of more than 3,000 providers, and more than 65,000 members worldwide, Aetna said.

"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," Aetna Chairman, CEO and President Mark T. Bertolini said in a prepared statement. "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."

Richard di Benedetto, president of Aetna International, said in the company's announcement: "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."

The transaction, Aetna said, is expected to be neutral to the company's financial results in 2014.

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