(Feb 7): Legal & General Group plc (L&G) agreed to sell its US insurance entity for US$2.3 billion (RM10.2 billion), the latest move by chief executive officer António Simões to revamp the financial services firm and boost payouts to shareholders.
The US insurance entity, which comprises the firm’s local protection and pension risk-transfer (PRT) businesses, will be sold to Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Co, according to a statement on Friday. Following completion, the Japanese insurer will own L&G’s US protection business, and have a 20% economic interest in its US PRT business. Meiji Yasuda also plans to buy a 5% stake in L&G.
London-based L&G will use £1 billion (US$1.24 billion or RM5.53 billion) of the proceeds for share repurchases. Another £400 million will be spent to fund a US PRT reinsurance arrangement with Meiji Yasuda, in which the UK insurer will retain 80% interest.
L&G shares surged as much as 11.4% in early London trading on Friday, the biggest intraday gain since November 2020.
“This is a transformative transaction that brings significant strategic and financial benefits to the group”, sharpening L&G’s focus on core businesses and “driving sustainable growth to enhance shareholder returns”, Simões said in the statement.
Simões, who took the helm at L&G about a year ago, has unveiled a new strategy for the company that envisioned merging its asset management units and scaling up private-market and higher fee-paying assets. As part of the sweeping changes, with the goal of returning more capital to shareholders from 2024 to 2027, L&G agreed in September to sell UK homebuilder Cala Group, with expected cash proceeds of £1.16 billion.
Before joining L&G as its CEO, Simões was the regional head of Europe for Banco Santander SA. The former McKinsey & Co partner also spent 13 years at HSBC Holdings plc earlier, including as the CEO for the UK and Europe.
Tokyo-based Meiji Yasuda has been seeking acquisitions overseas, particularly in the US, where its subsidiary StanCorp Financial Group Inc is buying Allstate Corp’s benefits unit for about US$2 billion. The firm’s ambitions reflect bold moves also being made by many of its local rivals, all hunting for growth outside of the country given Japan’s shrinking population.
The earnings impact from losing a 20% economic interest in the US PRT business is likely to be “minimal”, RBC analysts led by Mandeep Jagpal wrote in a note on Friday, noting the protection businesses were assessed by L&G as having less of a strategic fit than other parts of the group.
L&G now expects to return the equivalent of about 40% of its market value to shareholders over 2025 to 2027 through a combination of dividends and buy-backs. The transaction, expected to conclude towards the end of 2025 pending regulatory approvals, will also provide capital to invest in growth across L&G’s three core businesses of asset management, institutional retirement and UK retail, it said in the statement.
Reiterating its guidance for full year of 2024 of mid-single digit growth in core operating profit, L&G said it is on track to achieve its remaining targets.
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