Keeping to core product will assure Irish Life its best way forward

Irish Life may be smarting at its failure to take over New Ireland despite a strong bid. Its plans to consolidate its position as the clear market leader (in terms of market share) and then move on to expand into the broader financial services market have received a setback. But success at the bidding stakes may not have been the best result for Irish Life. At the £273.6 million and 1.4 times embedded value, New Ireland did not come cheap. With overlapping field sales operations, Irish Life was in the best position, in theory at least, to wrench synergies out of a takeover and make the deal earnings enhancing. But its recent experience in reorganising its own sales force must have cast doubt over how successful any rationalisation attempt would have been. With 25 per cent of the life assurance market the company might now be well advised to concentrate on doing what it does better.