General Insurance Article - L&G to sell L&G Netherlands to Chesnara Plc

 Mark Gregory, Group Chief Financial Officer, Legal & General said: “Our strategy is focused on having scalable businesses in growth markets. As a consequence, over the last two years, we have disposed of a number of operations we no longer regard as core, including our Irish, French, Egyptian and Gulf businesses, and now we are doing the same with our Dutch business. We have also disposed of the Suffolk Life SIPP business in the UK and agreed a sale of Cofunds.”

 John Deane, Chief Executive Officer, Chesnara plc said: “Chesnara is delighted to be acquiring another well-run and attractive business in the Dutch life assurance market. As with our Swedish subsidiary Movestic, we will be writing protection and pension policies. This will complement our closed block consolidation business Waard. We see great opportunities for both organisations within the Chesnara group to deliver value to our customers, their advisors and our shareholders.”

 Legal & General Netherlands' Works Council (ondernemingsraad) has been asked for advice on the transaction, as required under Dutch law. The transaction is subject to the signing of a definitive agreement and the approval of regulatory authorities.

 Legal & General Netherlands is headquartered in Hilversum, Netherlands. It was established in 1984, and Pieter Glas has been CEO since April 2016. It is a leading player in adviser-led risk and investment-linked products, sold through independent financial advisers, serving high-end affluent customers. It also has an established defined contribution group pension platform focused on Dutch SMEs. It has over 170,000 policyholders, funds under management are €2.2 billion, and it wrote gross written premiums of £25 million at H1 in 2016.