The global insurer has signed an agreement to divest its stake in the UK network of financial advisors.

Zurich Insurance Company will sell its 25 per cent stake in Openwork within the next four years.

The deal will see Zurich transfer its shares to Openwork’s other main shareholder, Openwork Partnership, which represents a network of around 600 advisor firms and 3,000 advisors. The value of the deal was not disclosed.  

The Openwork Group is currently owned – via ordinary shares – by its advisors, with a 67.5 per cent share; by its employees, with a 7.5 per cent share; and by Zurich Insurance Company, with a 25 per cent stake. Openwork will continue to distribute Zurich’s product lines in the UK.

The network, which was created in 2005, generated an operating profit of £5.5 million ($7.8 million) in 2014, an increase of more than 230 per cent on the £1.7 million profit earned in 2013. Figures for 2015 were not given.