Munich Re is understood to have Willis Capital Markets & Advisory in its corner as it seeks a buyer for its Australian unit, Great Lakes Australia.
Sources said Munich Re had hired WCMA in recent days, after talking to financial institutions teams at the big integrated banks and boutique advisory shops. Munich Re is seeking to sell Great Lakes Australia and exit the domestic primary insurance sector, to focus on its bread-and-butter reinsurance products. 
It'll be interesting to see if Munich Re can find a buyer for Great Lakes Australia with the business understood to have been loss-making since it was set up in 2007.
Great Lakes Australia is widely regarded as sub-scale, booking about $500 million a year in gross written premiums or roughly half what insurance company executives reckon you need to be a viable player in the local market. About 60 per cent of its business is underwriting travel insurance policies written by ASX-listed Cover-More, with the rest through broking group Steadfast.
WCMA, which is part of Willis Towers Watson, is expected to test buyer appetite in Australia and offshore. It would make sense to target local travel insurance underwriters Allianz, Suncorp Group and QBE Insurance, although it is hard to see why these companies would not approach Cover-More directly if they wanted to bolster their presence.
Offshore players interested in Great Lakes Australia would need an existing Australian presence or expansion plans, so they can achieve the critical mass that Munich Re failed to find in the past 10 years.
Munich Re flagged Great Lakes Australia's sale last month, saying it had failed to get to a critical size. The global giant said it would focus solely on the Australian reinsurance market, targeting property and casualty and life reinsurance.