13th Jul 2015 08:18
LONDON (Alliance News) - Egypt's Commercial International Bank and London-listed Legal & General Group PLC are selling their stakes in Commercial International Life Insurance Co to French insurance and asset management company AXA Group.
In a statement dated Sunday, CIB and Legal & General said their stakes in CIL, which was originally established in 1998 and operates in the Egyptian life insurance industry, will be sold for EGP763 million, about GBP63 million.
Legal & General owns 55% of CIL, with CIB owning the remainder.
"Legal & General is delighted to have been part of the success of CIL for the past 17 years, and pleased to see the positive impact that life insurance has delivered to its Egyptian customers. Legal & General's strategy of building scalable, customer focussed, long-term businesses has been achieved in Egypt, and now is the right time to hand the business over," Simon Burke, Managing Director Emerging Markets for Legal & General, said in a statement.
CI Capital was the sell-side financial advisor to Legal & General and CIB on the deal.
CIB said the move is part of its decision to gradually offload all of its non-core banking activities. The deal is expected to complete by the end of 2015.
A partnership between CIB and AXA has been agreed, which will involve a 10-year exclusive distribution deal between the two companies. According to AXA, the distribution agreement will be focused on unit-linked, as well as protection and health, insurance.
Legal & General Group shares were up 1.1% at 266.40 pence on Monday morning in London.
By Samuel Agini; [email protected]; @samuelagini
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