Royal London secures £219m deal for Co-op life and fund arm

Royal London has agreed to buy the Co-operative Banking Group's life insurance and asset management businesses in a deal worth up to £219m.

The purchase of Co-operative Insurance Society (CIS) and the Co-operative Asset Management will boost Royal London's funds under management from around £50bn to roughly £70bn, the group said. Royal London will pay a total consideration of £219m for the share acquisitions, of which £180m will be deferred and payable when "certain conditions" are met - in particular, when assets of the same value within CIS become available to Royal London. Royal London's customer base will rise from 4m to 6m as a result of the deal. “The increased scale of our asset management operations and introdu...