Dutch insurer NN Group said on Thursday Goldman Sachs will buy NNIP, its asset management arm, for 1.7 billion euros ($1.98 billion) in the biggest acquisition by the American firm since David Solomon became chief executive in 2018.
The deal is part of Solomon's strategy to make the bank's revenue stream less reliant on earnings from global markets and advising on deals.
"This acquisition allows us to accelerate our growth strategy and broaden our asset management platform," 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.
David Knibbe, CEO of NN Group, told CNBC Thursday that the deal comes 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," he told "Squawk Box Europe."
"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."
He added: "We believe it will broaden all the custom propositions that we offer to our customers."
Goldman said NNIP's 900 employees will join GS and the Netherlands will become "a significant location" in its European business.
Additionally, the two companies will enter a 10-year strategic partnership under which Goldman will provide asset management services to NN Group on an investment portfolio of $190 billion, the companies said.
NN said the sale of NNIP will improve its Solvency II ratio by 17 percentage points and extra capital would be used for acquisitions or additional returns to shareholders.
The Dutch firm's asset management arm had also attracted interest from other insurers and asset managers, including UBS, Germany's DWS and U.S. name Nuveen, Reuters reported in June.
—CNBC's Silvia Amaro contributed to this article.