Insurance group agrees £425m deal

ReAssure Group's head office in Telford

Life insurance group ReAssure has shrugged off its aborted stock market listing and got back on the acquisition trail.

The Telford-headquartered business has agreed to purchase Quilter’s heritage life and pensions division, Old Mutual Wealth Life Assurance, for £425m.

The all-cash deal is expected to result in “a meaningful proportion” of the proceeds being passed on to Quilter shareholders.

The sale follows a strategic review by Quilter to further focus the business on being an “advice led, modern wealth manager”.

Paul Feeney, chief executive of Quilter, said: “ReAssure is a highly regarded manager of closed book assets and has the experience to deliver continued high quality investment and administration services to clients of Quilter Life Assurance.”

It is a quick return to business as usual for ReAssure, which had revealed plans for a £3bn stock market float in June only for its parent company Swiss Re to pull it weeks later blaming weak investor demand.

Swiss Re is the world’s second-largest reinsurer and ReAssure is the UK’s sixth largest life insurance group, employing 2,500 people across its four sites in Telford, Norwich, Hitchin and London.

ReAssure buys and administers closed books of business from other companies.

The Quilter deal will increase its assets by £12bn to £81bn and add 200,000 policies to its existing portfolio of 4.3m.

ReAssure chief executive Mark Hodges described the deal as “a win for all stakeholders”.

He said: “This transaction further confirms that our business is well positioned to benefit from the significant and structurally growing market opportunity in closed books. Our deal pipeline is attractive and we will continue to focus on our growth strategy.”

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