Life and pensions firm Chesnara has acquired Scottish Widows Europe, a Luxembourg-based closed life insurance business, from Lloyds Banking Group for €110m, it announced today.
The acquisition adds roughly €1.7bn of assets under administration and approximately 46,000 in-force policies to Chesnara. The deal means Chesnara's entrance into Luxembourg, which it said represents an "additional attractive market", while the addition of new policyholders based in Germany, Austria and Italy provides "a platform for increased consolidation and scale across Europe".
The deal is expected to deliver around €250m of incremental cash generation over the lifetime of the policies held in the Scottish Widows Europe portfolio, with roughly €100m of this cash generation occurring in the first five years.
Commenting on the acquisition, Chesnara's CEO Steve Murray said: "We are delighted to announce Chesnara's second significant acquisition in the past twelve months. Scottish Widows Europe is another material and value-accretive transaction with a product set that we know well.
"It marks our entry into Luxembourg, providing a new platform for in-market and wider European consolidation and expansion. We are pleased that another major financial institution, Lloyds Banking Group, has chosen us to look after their policyholders. We look forward to welcoming Scottish Widows Europe policyholders and new colleagues to Chesnara."
