NU Online News Service, Sept. 17, 2003, 7:47 p.m. EDT – AXA Financial Inc., New York, has announced an agreement to acquire The MONY Group Inc., New York, for $1.5 billion in cash.
The deal price amounts to $31 per share, or 106.2% of MONY's Sept. 16 closing share price.
The boards of both companies have approved the deal, but the companies still need approval from regulators and MONY shareholders. The companies hope to complete the deal in early 2004.
"This is a great opportunity for AXA Financial to add scale to its operations," AXA Financial President Christopher Condron says in a statement about the deal.
AXA Financial, the U.S. arm of AXA S.A., Paris, and the parent of The Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States, New York, controls $458 billion in assets.
MONY, which owns Advest Inc., Hartford, a regional brokerage firm, as well as a large life insurance operation, manages or administers $55 billion in assets.
The MONY deal should help AXA Financial expand its retail insurance and annuity distribution by almost 25%, Condron says.
