Allianz to buy Birmingham insurance division for £242m

Legal & General has 700 people working at Centre City in Birmingham

Allianz has agreed a deal to buy Legal & General’s Birmingham-based general insurance division for at least £242m.

It will combine the business with LV= General Insurance, which it now completely owns after it bought out the remaining 30.1% stake held by Liverpool Victoria Friendly Society in a separate £365m deal also announced this morning.

Jon Dye, chief executive of Allianz UK, said: “This is a good outcome for all the parties involved and acquiring a high quality business with 2m customers to combine with the LV= General Insurance business is a strong result.”

Around 700 people working in Birmingham will transfer across in the deal. Legal & General’s general insurance business provides home and contents insurance to UK customers and last year wrote premiums totalling £410m.

The deal will see £242m paid when the deal completes with potential further payments over a three-year period from ongoing commercial arrangements. The deal is expected to complete in the second half of 2019.

Nigel Wilson, chief executive of Legal & General, said: “Selling the General Insurance business is the right decision for our customers and shareholders.

“We continue to focus on delivering against our strategy, allocating shareholders’ capital rigorously. We are market leaders in 10 UK markets and have a growing presence in the USA and an emerging presence in Asia. Deploying capital in these businesses will deliver better outcomes for all our stakeholders.”

The proceeds from the disposal will be reinvested into its core businesses.

The sale is the latest by Legal & General, which has raised £1.5bn in recent year through the disposal of its historic savings businesses – Mature Savings, Cofunds, Suffolk Life and its international savings businesses in Ireland, Egypt and Germany – its international insurance businesses in the Netherlands, France and India, and other non-core businesses.

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