Legal & General In exclusive negotiations to SELL lEGAL & gENERAL fRANCE TO apicil
Legal & General Group Plc ("Legal & General") has today entered into exclusive negotiations after receiving a binding offer from APICIL Prévoyance ("APICIL") to acquire Legal & General Holdings (France) S.A. ("L&G France").
Mark Gregory, Group Chief Financial Officer, Legal & General said: "We have an increasingly focused strategy and our French business is no longer a core operation for us. Legal & General France has strong potential: which can be realised by combining it with APICIL's established strengths in the French market."
Philippe Barret, Managing Director, APICIL Group said: "Once the transaction is confirmed, we will be pleased to welcome L&G France, its successful teams and business partners within the APICIL Group. This acquisition will definitely accelerate APICIL's growth in its two strategic markets: Life Insurance and Medical, death and disability Insurance. The acquisition will nicely complement our recent acquisition of Skandia (France/ Luxembourg) and our existing businesses".
Oliver Potellet, President and CEO, Legal & General France said: "Legal & General has been a great owner, and helped us become a key player in the French insurance market. I'm excited about our next phase of development, and look forward to achieving it in partnership with APICIL."
The transaction will be submitted to L&G France's Works Council, as required under French law, and is subject to the signing of a definitive agreement and the approval of regulatory authorities.
L&G France is headquartered in Paris, with 19 agency branches situated across France. It was established in 1934, and Oliver Potellet has been President and CEO since 2010. It is a specialist player in unit-linked savings and group risk, with an established presence in the affluent savings market and the group health and protection market for SMEs. It has a client base of circa 37,000 individual savings customers, circa 4,000 group risk SME customers, and it wrote premiums in 2014 of €371.8m in savings and €214.9m in group risk.
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For further information, please contact:
Investors:
Laura Doyle Head of Investor Relations 020 3124 2088
Media:
Richard King Head of Group Corporate Communications 020 3124 2095
Notes to editors:
Legal & General Group Plc
Established in 1836, Legal & General is a leading provider of insurance, savings and investment management products in the UK. The Group has a market capitalisation of £15.4bn (as at 29 July 2015) and is responsible for investing £737bn worldwide (as at 31 March 2015) on behalf of investors, policyholders and shareholders. We have over 10 million customers in the UK and US for life assurance, pensions, investments and general insurance plans. In 2014, Legal & General's operating profit (on the IFRS basis) was £1,275m and earnings per share were 16.70p for the period, an increase of 10% for both respectively. Legal & General's dividend per share was 11.25p for 2014, up 21% on the prior year's 9.30p per share.
Apicil Group
The APICIL Group is the fifth largest Health & Protection mutual and paritarian insurer in France, leader in the Rhône-Alpes region with €2,804 million in premiums in 2014 (Pension and health, death and disability insurance). The Group has combined assets under management of €6.8 billion. The 1,300 APICIL employees bring their skills to nearly 1.5 million active and retired people who benefit from the services of the Group which was established in 1938 in Lyon.
Forward-looking statements
This announcement may contain certain forward-looking statements relating to Legal & General, its plans and its current goals and expectations relating to future financial condition, performance and results. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve uncertainty because they relate to future events and circumstances which are beyond Legal & General's control, including, among others, UK domestic and global economic and business conditions, market related risks such as fluctuations in interest rates and exchange rates, the policies and actions of regulatory and Governmental authorities, the impact of competition, the timing impact of these events and other uncertainties of future acquisition or combinations within relevant industries. As a result, Legal & General's actual future condition, performance and results may differ materially from the plans, goals and expectations set out in these forward-looking statements and persons reading this announcement should not place reliance on forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are made only as at the date on which such statements are made and Legal & General Group Plc does not undertake to update forward-looking statements contained in this announcement or any other forward-looking statement it may make.
