Swiss Life on Thursday said it was to spend SFr700m ($638m, €432m) in Germany, where last December it bought a leading network of financial advisers, to reinforce the Swiss insurance and pensions group in Europe’s biggest economy.

Some SFr200m will go on 10.46 per cent of AWD, the financial advisory group in which Swiss Life took a controlling holding this year. The shares are coming from Carsten Maschmeyer, AWD’s founder, who sold the bulk of his holding to Swiss Life in the initial transaction. The decision will give Swiss Life almost 97 per cent of the capital.