M and A
Utmost Expands Further As Acquisition Completes
The M&A deal sees Utmost Wealth Solutions surge up the scale rankings in Europe.
Life Company Consolidation Group, parent of Isle of
Man-headquartered Utmost Wealth
Solutions, this week completed its agreed purchase of
Generali PanEurope from Italian financial group
Generali.
The deal turns Utmost into the second-largest cross-border
provider of unit-linked wealth solutions in Europe, and more
acquisitions are planned, it said.
The acquisition takes Utmost’s AuM to more than €24 billion
($27.7 billion).
LCCG, founded in 2013, is a specialist life assurance group; it
has so far bought eight business in Ireland and the Isle of Man.
It is backed by funds managed by Oaktree Capital
Management.
Generali PanEurope’s wealth protection, investment planning and
employee benefits business are combined with Utmost’s existing
international savings, protection and investment solutions
offering. The purchased business is now called Utmost
PanEurope.
In July, Utmost Wealth Solutions completed its acquisition of Axa
Life Europe's investment bond business and opened a new office in
Dublin. The Axa Life Europe portfolio was acquired by Harcourt
Life International, which was subsequently renamed Utmost Ireland
and will trade under the Utmost Wealth Solutions brand.
The transaction is another example of a trend of M&A deals in
European wealth management, with firms seeking scale to preserve
an edge at a time of rising regulatory costs, while others are
spinning off operations seen as non-core to concentrate on areas
where they can achieve profitable growth.
The M&A deal was initially announced in December last year;
the purchase price wasn’t disclosed.
