Earlier this week we told you that Legal & General was in talks to sell its Dutch unit to life and pensions consolidator Chesnara in a £130 million deal (see article). This morning, the deal was confirmed at the slightly higher sale price of €160 million (approximately £136 million).

“Chesnara is delighted to be acquiring another well-run and attractive business in the Dutch life assurance market,” said John Deane, chief executive officer of Chesnara plc. “We see great opportunities for both organisations within the Chesnara group to deliver value to our customers, their advisors and our shareholders.”
Legal & General is already looking forward after saying goodbye to a unit that has more than 170,000 policyholders and €2.2 billion in funds under management.

“Our strategy is focused on having scalable businesses in growth markets,” said Mark Gregory, group chief financial officer at Legal & General.

“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.”

The transaction is still subject to the signing of a definitive agreement.