London
Aviva has announced its agreement to purchase AIG Life UK, the UK life insurance business of AIG, for £460 million ($563 million). This deal marks the largest acquisition made by Aviva’s CEO, Amanda Blanc, to date. The purchase will be made from Corebridge Financial, a New York-listed company, which is majority-owned by AIG.
Aviva has been on a path of prioritizing investor returns and refocusing its operations on core markets, which included divesting various business units around the world. Analysts view this acquisition as a wise use of cash recently raised from the sale of its stake in Singapore Life.
This transaction is expected to strengthen Aviva’s position in the UK market and contribute to its capital-light growth strategy. The deal will bring 1.3 million individual protection customers and 1.4 million group protection members to Aviva.
The acquisition is slated to close in the first half of 2024, subject to regulatory approvals. It will result in a roughly 5 percentage point reduction in Aviva’s group solvency II cover ratio.
Peter Zaffino, CEO of AIG and chairman of Corebridge, noted that this deal aligns with AIG’s strategic focus on life and retirement products in the United States. Corebridge was established in 2021 when AIG spun off its life and retirement business and sold a portion of the company to Blackstone for $2.2 billion. Last year, AIG took Corebridge public through a share offering that raised $1.7 billion.
