(Reuters) -- Exor, the holding company of Italy’s Agnelli family, has agreed to sell its PartnerRe re-insurer to French insurance group Covea for $9 billion, bringing home a deal that had been derailed by the coronavirus pandemic.

The price tag is unchanged from last year, when Covea walked away from the purchase of the Agnelli’s Bermuda-based firm saying it could no longer buy it under terms agreed before the pandemic while Exor refused to budge.

Exor had said at the time PartnerRe had one of the highest capital and liquidity ratios in the global reinsurance industry and was not expected to be significantly affected by the pandemic.

The deal further boosts Exor’s firepower for future acquisitions, which currently amounts to about 3 billion euros.

Exor and Covea said in a joint statement they had signed a memorandum of understanding and would finalize the deal by the end of the year, after Covea consulted with work councils as it was required to do.

Completion of the agreement is slated for mid-2022.

The $9 billion euro cash consideration reflects a common equity value for PartnerRe of $7 billion, the companies said, adding New York-listed preferred shares of PartnerRe were not part of the acquisition.

“The acquisition of PartnerRe is fully consistent with Covea’s long-term strategy to anticipate the evolution of the global insurance environment through international growth and through the diversification of products, risks and geographies,” the statement said.

After the deal collapsed, Covea agreed to invest 1.5 billion euros in entities managed by PartnerRe and in undisclosed investments related to Exor, in a bid to normalize relations between the two companies.

Covea said the reinsurance and investment cooperation agreements involving Exor, PartnerRe and Covea had helped it to better know and appreciate PartnerRe and its management.

Exor and Covea will continue their reinsurance cooperation, with Exor acquiring from Covea interests in special purpose reinsurance vehicles managed by PartnerRe for around $725 million.

These vehicles will invest in property catastrophe and other short-tail reinsurance contracts underwritten by PartnerRe, the companies said.

Covea, Exor and PartnerRe will also continue to jointly invest in Exor-managed funds.

Under the original terms of the agreement with Covea, Exor would have received an aggregate cash return of $3 billion from its purchase and disposal of PartnerRe, including dividends paid by the reinsurer since 2016, Exor had said.