Canada Life acquires Legal & General

Canada Life, the UK subsidiary of Canadian financial services group Great-West Lifeco, is to acquire Dublin based offshore insurer Legal & General International (LGII) for an undisclosed sum.

Paul Mahon, president and chief executive officer of Great-West Lifeco, said that the transaction “will enhance the position of Canada Life in the UK, and give clients and professional advisers further confidence in our UK offshore business”.

Launched in 2007, LGII is a subsidiary of the Legal & General Group Plc and provides investment and tax planning solutions, primarily focused on the UK high net worth market. LGII has over 4,000 UK offshore bond policies with assets under administration of £2.5bn (€3.3bn), as at October 30th 2014.

Canada Life's Irish operations were subsumed into Irish Life in January 2014, but the UK operations still carry the name. An offshore bond provider, it has been selling into the UK for over 27 years through its offshore companies, based in the Isle of Man.

The sale of LGII is part of the L&G group’s ongoing disposal programme of its peripheral assets.