DUBAI - A consortium led by Abu Dhabi state holding firm ADQ are in advanced negotiations to acquire a controlling stake in Israeli financial firm Phoenix Group in a deal valued around 9.2 billion shekels ($2.70 billion), the companies said on Wednesday.

U.S. private investment firms Centerbridge Partners and Gallatin Point Capital, which hold 33.4% of the Israeli firm, are in talks to sell about 25%-30% of the company to the Abu Dhabi funds, the two companies said in a statement.

Phoenix's chief executive and chairman, it said, would also buy 1%-2% of the company.

"The transaction will be subject to regulatory approvals, which will include a control permit from Israel's Capital Market, Insurance and Savings Authority," Centerbridge and Gallatin said in the statement.

Some 58% of Phoenix's shares would remain traded on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.

ADQ is buying Centerbridge's stake in Phoenix, in a non-binding deal, which may take months to complete to receive regulatory and shareholder approvals, according to a source familiar with the deal.

Phoenix Group, one of the largest financial firms in Israel with a market capitalisation of around $2.8 billion, is a provider of multi-line insurance, asset management, investment and financial services.

The UAE became the first Gulf state to normalise relations with Israel under a U.S.-brokered normalisation agreement, dubbed the "Abraham Accords," in 2020.

ADQ's venture capital arm DisruptAD, along with a fund managed by US-French private equity firm L Catterton, in July led a $105 million investment round in Israel's Aleph Farms, a lab-grown meat start-up firm.

($1 = 3.4034 shekels)

(Reporting by Hadeel Al Sayegh and Steven Scheer, Editing by Louise Heavens)