Chesnara, the European life and pensions consolidator, has acquired a closed portfolio of unit linked bonds and legacy pension business of approximately 17,000 policies and £1.5 billion in total assets under management (AUM) as at 31st, December 2023, from Canada Life Limited (Canada Life UK).
The policies are expected to transfer to Chesnara’s UK subsidiary, Countrywide Assured plc at the end of 2025, subject to the completion of a court-approved Part VII transfer.
In the meanwhile, Canada Life UK will reinsure the portfolio to Countrywide Assured, effective from 31st, December 2023. The consideration as part of the reinsurance agreement is £2 million, funded from the group’s internal resources.
This transaction is expected to provide an increase to the Group’s Economic Value of at least £8 million, and contribute the same amount of cash generation over a five year period, with a small initial reduction to the Group’s Solvency II ratio of approximately 2% points.
This transaction follows the previous acquisition of an individual onshore protection business from Canada Life in 2023.
Steve Murray, Group Chief Executive, Chesnara commented, “We are pleased to continue our relationship with Canada Life through the agreement of our second recent transaction, following the acquisition of 47,000 protection policies that we announced last year. I am looking forward to welcoming these new customers and their advisors to Chesnara and they can be confident we will continue to provide high levels of customer service as part of a financially strong and growing group.
“This transaction, the sixth deal implemented in the past three years, will add additional scale to our UK business which now looks after over 300,000 policies, and provides an attractive return on investment for our shareholders. We continue to see a range of M&A opportunities and are highly confident in our ability to finance and execute such transactions on attractive terms for vendors, customers and our shareholders.”
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