REG - Chesnara PLC - Acquisition

ChesnaraAnnouncement

23/12/2024 07:00

For best results when printing this announcement, please click on link below:
https://newsfile.refinitiv.com/getnewsfile/v1/story?guid=urn:newsml:reuters.com:20241223:nRSW0182Ra&default-theme=true

RNS Number : 0182R  Chesnara PLC  23 December 2024

 LEI Number: 213800VFRMBRTSZ3SJ06

 

23 December 2024

 

CHESNARA plc
("Chesnara" or "the Company")

 

ANNOUNCEMENT OF A SECOND PORTFOLIO ACQUISITION FROM CANADA LIFE UK

 

Chesnara plc, the European life and pensions consolidator, today announces it
has reached an agreement with Canada Life Limited ("Canada Life UK") to
acquire a closed portfolio of unit linked bonds and legacy pension business
with approximately 17,000 policies and total assets under management of £1.5
billion as at 31 December 2023. As a result of the acquisition, the policies
are expected to transfer to Chesnara's UK subsidiary, Countrywide Assured plc
("Countrywide Assured") at the end of 2025 (subject to the completion of a
court-approved Part VII transfer). This transaction follows the previous
acquisition of an individual onshore protection business from Canada Life in
2023.

 

In the interim period, Canada Life UK will reinsure the portfolio to
Countrywide Assured, effective from 31 December 2023. The consideration as
part of the reinsurance agreement is £2 million, funded from internal Group
resources, and we expect the transaction to provide an uplift in the Group's
Economic Value of at least £8 million, contribute £8 million of cash
generation over a five year period, with a small initial reduction to the
Group's Solvency II ratio of approximately 2 percentage points.

 

Steve Murray, Group Chief Executive, commented:

 

"We are pleased to continue our relationship with Canada Life through the
agreement of our second recent transaction, following the acquisition of
47,000 protection policies that we announced last year. I am looking forward
to welcoming these new customers and their advisors to Chesnara and they can
be confident we will continue to provide high levels of customer service as
part of a financially strong and growing group.

 

"This transaction, the sixth deal implemented in the past three years, will
add additional scale to our UK business which now looks after over 300,000
policies, and provides an attractive return on investment for our
shareholders.  We continue to see a range of M&A opportunities and are
highly confident in our ability to finance and execute such transactions on
attractive terms for vendors, customers and our shareholders."

 

 

For further information, please contact:

 

Investor Enquiries

Sam Perowne

Head of Strategic Development & Investor Relations

Chesnara plc

E - sam.perowne@chesnara.co.uk (mailto:sam.perowne@chesnara.co.uk)

 

Media Enquiries

Roddy Watt

Director, Capital Markets

FWD

T - 020 7280 0651 / 07714 770 493

E - roddy.watt@fwdconsulting.co.uk (mailto:roddy.watt@fwdconsulting.co.uk)

 

Notes to Editors

Chesnara (CSN.L) is a European life and pensions consolidator listed on the
London Stock Exchange.  It administers over one million policies and operates
as Countrywide Assured in the UK, as The Waard Group and Scildon in the
Netherlands and as Movestic in Sweden.

 

Following a three-pillar strategy, Chesnara's primary responsibility is the
efficient administration of its customers' life and savings policies, ensuring
good customer outcomes and providing a secure and compliant environment to
protect policyholder interests. It also adds value by writing profitable new
business in Sweden, the Netherlands and the UK and by undertaking value-adding
acquisitions of either companies or portfolios.

 

Consistent delivery of the Company strategy has enabled Chesnara to increase
its dividend for 20 years in succession.

 

Further details are available on the Company's website (www.chesnara.co.uk
(http://www.chesnara.co.uk/) ).

 

This information is provided by RNS, the news service of the London Stock Exchange. RNS is approved by the Financial Conduct Authority to act as a Primary Information Provider in the United Kingdom. Terms and conditions relating to the use and distribution of this information may apply. For further information, please contact
rns@lseg.com (mailto:rns@lseg.com)
 or visit
www.rns.com (http://www.rns.com/)
.

RNS may use your IP address to confirm compliance with the terms and conditions, to analyse how you engage with the information contained in this communication, and to share such analysis on an anonymised basis with others as part of our commercial services. For further information about how RNS and the London Stock Exchange use the personal data you provide us, please see our
Privacy Policy (https://www.lseg.com/privacy-and-cookie-policy)
.   END  ACQFEWESSELSEIE