Equitable Life, the long established mutual life assurer, is expected to find no shortage of interested parties lining up for its "for sale" prospectus, due out later this month.
Prudential and mortgage bank Abbey National have both said they are looking at Equitable, estimated to be worth about £4-£5 million sterling (€6.61 million) and with about a 6 per cent share of the British life market. The company has 20,000 with-profit policyholders in the Republic.
A wide range of European insurers are also likely to be interested, including Germany's Allianz, France's AXA, Switzerland's Zurich Financial, as well as CGNU from Britain.
Equitable, Britain's fifth largest and oldest life group, was forced to seek a buyer when it lost a court case that effectively blew a £1.5 billion hole in its capital base.
A ruling by the House of Lords represented a victory for 90,000 pensioners in a test case brought by the company to clarify its position on a move to cut bonus payments on certain pension policies.
Equitable is putting itself up for sale by auction. The prospectus is due out before the end of the month. Schroder Salomon Smith Barney is advising the group on the sale.
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