Insurance stocks provided the best and worst blue-chip performers in Europe on Monday after Germany’s Allianz announced sweeping changes to its structure, including the €5.7bn buyout of minority shareholders of Italian subsidiary RAS.

Allianz said some 20.8m of its shares were being placed to help finance the purchase of the 44.6 per cent of RAS it does not already own. Of these, 10.1m were new shares from authorised capital, and the remainder borrowed from existing shareholders.