The Life Insurance Association of Japan will sell Aoba Life Insurance Co. to Artemis, a holding company of major French retailer Pinault Printemps Redoute, for 25 billion yen, the association announced Friday.
Aoba Life was set up by the industry group in June 1997 with funding from member insurance companies to take over the healthy assets and operations of Nissan Mutual Life Insurance Co., which collapsed in April that year. Aoba collects premiums from Nissan's policyholders but does not handle new contracts.
The association, Aoba's sole shareholder, will transfer all its stocks to a subsidiary of the French group on Nov. 30. At the end of March, the insurer had about 1.19 trillion yen in total assets.