Historical series Itaú Unibanco buys Avita to expand its guarantee insurance business
Agreement to acquire the broker reinforces the bank’s open platform strategy and will bring its corporate clients more insurance product options and efficiency in guarantees control
February 2024 – Itaú Unibanco announces an agreement to acquire Avita, one of the leading brokers in the Brazilian judicial guarantee insurance market. Founded in 2019, the broker has an open online platform for quoting this type of insurance, which allows clients to issue, manage and control maturities, renewals and cancellations of policies issued by various partner insurers. Its focus is to reduce bureaucracy in the chain of issuing guarantees for companies, reducing clients’ operating and financial costs when taking out and managing policies.
The purchase will take place in two stages. In the first, Itaú Unibanco will acquire 80% of Avita’s stock capital, controlled by Prisma Capital, keeping 20% with the founding partners. In the second stage, after five years, the bank will buy the remaining stake in the company’s stock capital. Completion of the operation is subject to approval by the relevant regulatory bodies.
Avita’s founding partners will remain at the helm of the company’s operations. The management of Avita’s business will remain autonomous, and the broker will maintain its commercial relationships with other institutions in order to further expand its market share in insurance distribution in the coming years.
Among Itaú Unibanco’s main objectives with the acquisition is the possibility of relying on the innovative technology of Avita’s insurance management platform, which will allow the bank to expand the distribution of insurance in the forms of guarantees and financial lines for Itaú BBA clients and, in the future, also for Itaú Empresas clients.
Avita integrates with management platforms and legal ERPs and captures information from the main Brazilian courts, allowing clients to follow the progress of cases and their insurance needs in real time.