LEGAL & GENERAL TO SELL LEGAL & GENERAL NETHERLANDS TO CHESNARA PLC
Legal & General Group Plc ("Legal & General") has reached agreement in principle with Chesnara plc ("Chesnara") to sell Legal & General Nederland Levensverzekering Maatschappij N.V. ("Legal & General Netherlands") to Chesnara for €160 million. The sale of the business is expected to marginally improve the group coverage ratio, and be for a small IFRS profit.
Mark Gregory, Group Chief Financial Officer, Legal & General said: "Our strategy is focused on having scalable businesses in growth markets. As a consequence, over the last two years, we have disposed of a number of operations we no longer regard as core, including our Irish, French, Egyptian and Gulf businesses, and now we are doing the same with our Dutch business. We have also disposed of the Suffolk Life SIPP business in the UK and agreed a sale of Cofunds."
John Deane, Chief Executive Officer, Chesnara plc said: "Chesnara is delighted to be acquiring another well-run and attractive business in the Dutch life assurance market. As with our Swedish subsidiary Movestic, we will be writing protection and pension policies. This will complement our closed block consolidation business Waard. We see great opportunities for both organisations within the Chesnara group to deliver value to our customers, their advisors and our shareholders."
Legal & General Netherlands' Works Council (ondernemingsraad) has been asked for advice on the transaction, as required under Dutch law. The transaction is subject to the signing of a definitive agreement and the approval of regulatory authorities.
Legal & General Netherlands is headquartered in Hilversum, Netherlands. It was established in 1984, and Pieter Glas has been CEO since April 2016. It is a leading player in adviser-led risk and investment-linked products, sold through independent financial advisers, serving high-end affluent customers. It also has an established defined contribution group pension platform focused on Dutch SMEs. It has over 170,000 policyholders, funds under management are €2.2 billion, and it wrote gross written premiums of £25 million at H1 in 2016.
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For further information, please contact:
Investors:
Laura Doyle Head of Investor Relations 020 3124 2088
Sujee Rajah Investor Relations Manager 020 3124 2047
Media:
Richard King Head of Group Corporate Communications 020 3124 2095
Financial PR for Chesnara
FWD Consulting 020 7280 0651
Roddy Watt 07714 770493
Notes to editors:
HSBC acted as exclusive financial advisor to Legal & General.
Legal & General Group Plc:
1. 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 £14bn (as at 23rd November 2016) and is responsible for investing £841.5bn worldwide (as at 30 June 2016) on behalf of investors, policyholders and shareholders.
2. Legal & General has over seven million customers in the UK for life assurance, pensions, investments and general insurance plans and over one million customers in the US who rely on us for life assurance.
3. In 2015, Legal & General's operating profit (IFRS basis) was £1,455m and adjusted earnings per share were 18.58p for the period, an increase of 14% and 11% respectively. For H1 2016 Legal & General's profit before tax was £826m, an increase of 23%, adjusted earnings per share were 11.20p for the period, an increase of 14%, and net cash of £727m, an increase of 16%.
For more information on Legal & General, please see http://www.legalandgeneralgroup.com/
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.
