Nationwide Mutual wants its consumer finance unit back in the family.
The closely held insurance and financial services giant proposed purchasing all the publicly held Class A common shares of Nationwide Financial Services Inc. for $47.20 per share in cash, or $2.2 billion.
The public shares represent 33.7 percent equity ownership in Nationwide Financial and 4.8 percent of the combined voting power of the shareholders of Nationwide Financial. Nationwide Mutual owns all of the outstanding shares of the financial services company’s Class B common, which represents the remaining 66.3 percent equity ownership in Nationwide Financial and 95.2 percent of the combined voting power of the shareholders of Nationwide Financial.
Nationwide Financial directors had appointed a special board committee — composed of independent, non-affiliated directors — to consider the proposal.
Spokesman Joe Case told Reuters that Nationwide Mutual wanted to buy out the public shares of Nationwide Financial as a way of simplifying the insurance and financial services group’s ownership structure. The Nationwide group of companies is led by Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co.