Allianz, the German insurer, has called in Goldman Sachs, Rothschild and Dresdner Kleinwort to advise on its €9.8bn ($12.7bn) plan to buy the remaining shares of a French insurance group with private equity and asset management operations.

Sources close to the deal confirmed the banks' mandate for Allianz's acquisition of the shares of France's Assurances Générales de France it does not already own, its largest deal since buying Dresdner Bank in 2001 for $19.2bn (€14.8bn).