New owner of insurer Aegon Ireland sells on €3bn offshore bond portfolio

The new owner of insurer Aegon Ireland has sold the company's entire €3 billion offshore bond portfolio to the parent of the Dublin-based specialist insurance company, Harcourt Life,

Athora Holding Ltd (formerly Ager), announced the acquisition of Aegon Ireland from its Dutch owner in a deal valued at €195 million last August. Just days after the deal closed last week, it sold on the bond portfolio to Utmost Ltd, a subsidiary of Life Company Consolidation Group (LCCG) for an undisclosed sum.

LCCG, which specialises in the acquisition of closed life insurance books, has been busy in the Irish market in recent years. It acquired business with investments under management of €13 billion in two separate deals with Axa and Aviva in mid-2016. It also bought the Irish arm of Italian insurance group Generali last year via Utmost in a deal valued at up to €240 million.

Aegon Ireland’s offshore bond portfolio represents approximately €3 billion of assets under management for about 7,000 UK-based customers. The sale is expected to close in the final quarter of 2018, subject to regulatory approvals.

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"We are pleased to have a strong purchaser in Utmost Ireland for our offshore bond portfolio and we will be working together to ensure a smooth transition for policyholders," said Michele Bareggi, group managing partner of Athora, a Bermuda-headquartered group.

Formidable franchise

“Utmost Ireland and LCCG have built a formidable franchise serving customers in the UK and we believe our offshore bond customers will be well served by this specialist,” he added.

Athora said the sale of the offshore bond portfolio does not affect Aegon Ireland’s portfolio of variable annuity products.

Aegon Ireland, which is to rebrand as Athora Ireland shortly, provides wealth management and retirement planning products to more than 25,000 customers in the UK and Germany.

Formerly known as Scottish Equitable, the company, which employs more than 200 people in Ireland, had assets of about €5.2 billion at the end of June 2017.