The NN Group said on Thursday that Goldman Sachs would buy NNIP, the Dutch insurer’s investment arm, for 1.7 billion euros ($1.98 billion). This is the biggest acquisition by the American firm since David Solomon became its chief executive in 2018. 

The deal is a part of Mr Solomon’s strategy of making the bank’s revenue stream less reliant on earnings from global markets and advising on deals. 

Additionally, the companies said that they would enter into a 10-year strategic partnership, under which Goldman Sachs will provide the Dutch firm asset management services, the companies. 

“This acquisition allows us to accelerate our growth strategy and broaden our asset management platform,” Mr Solomon said in a statement. 

NNIP, or NN Investment Partners, has $335 billion in assets under management, and the acquisition will double the total that Goldman Sachs manages in Europe to more than $600 billion. 

NN Group CEO David Knibbe said that the deal came after a strategic review of the business focused on how to accelerate growth. 

“We all know that ... there’s fee pressure, there is scale – it is very, very important in this business, (the) shift to passive is ongoing and also our customers demand flexibility,” Mr Knibbe said, adding: “So that’s why we did a strategic review to see what’s in the long term the best set-up for NNIP, and we are very pleased with the transaction we announced today.”

The NN Group added that the sale would improve its Solvency-II ratio by 17 percentage points.