The Zurich Group, a Swiss financial combine, said Friday it bought the 20 percent interest in Kemper Corp. that it didn’t purchase in 1996 when it acquired the rest of the Long Grove-based insurance firm.
Terms of the transaction were withheld. The 20 percent interest was held by Insurance Partners LP of New York since April 1995.
A 1995 press release said the group consisted of Centre Reinsurance Holdings Ltd., a Zurich subsidiary; Keystone Inc., owned by the Robert Bass family; and Chase Manhattan Bank. Officials of Insurance Partners couldn’t be reached Friday for comment.
Kemper Corp., which became a 100 percent-owned subsidiary of Zurich with the latest transaction, comprises three life insurance units with combined assets of $14 billion.
Zurich also owns a group of property and casualty companies called the Zurich American Group, based in Schaumburg. A spokesman said there were no plans to unite the group with the Kemper units.
