Italian insurer Unipol said it had received an offer to buy the insurance business with 1.7 billion euros ($2.3 billion) worth of premiums which it must sell to meet conditions set by the local competition watchdog to clear its merger with peer Fondiaria-SAI.

Unipol agreed to buy the Fondiaria group back in 2012 in a complex rescue deal that will create Italy's second-biggest insurer behind Assicurazioni Generali.

Unipol said in a document published on its website on Tuesday it would review the offer although it was not possible at the moment to say how long talks would take to complete nor how much it expected to raise from the sale.

In May Unipol said it had received 10 to 15 expressions of interest in the assets, from Allianz, Axa and Aviva, among others. 
A series of regulatory and legal hurdles has held up completion of the Unipol-Fondiaria merger.

The new group will be called Unipol Sai.