The RL360 Group has today announced it has entered into an agreement with Lloyds Banking Group plc (“Lloyds”) to acquire its international life business Clerical Medical International Insurance Company Limited (“CMI”). The transaction is subject to regulatory approval.
CMI was one of the first international operations to be established by a UK life company back in 1987, and after a number of ownership changes has been running as a closed book of business since March 2012. The closure of CMI resulted from Lloyds’ broader strategy of focusing on its core UK banking and insurance operations. CMI has c.24,000 policies with over ?5bn assets under management, which will transfer over to the RL360 Group. Operations are managed in the Isle of Man where it employs over 100 staff.
The RL360 Group was formed in October 2013 to support the management led buyout of RL360 Insurance Company Limited (RL360°) from the Royal London Group, with the support of its financial backers Vitruvian Partners. RL360° has a consistent record of strong growth in recent years, and the addition of CMI represents a significant strategic step, creating a combined group with circa ?8bn in assets under management.
David Kneeshaw, Chief Executive of RL360°, said:
“We have made no secret of the fact that pursuing acquisitions forms part of RL360°’s strategy to build further scale and support our growth plans. We believe CMI presents a significant and attractive opportunity to accelerate this objective. Moreover, CMI’s base in the Isle of Man, as well as its complementary book of business, should ease the integration process.
“We believe that CMI will be an excellent addition to the RL360 Group. Its long-running focus on providing high quality customer care and investor protection fits well with RL360°’s approach to doing business, and as such renders the transaction a natural fit. We will focus on administering CMI customers and have plans to continue to build service excellence.
“At the same time we remain fully committed to our existing RL360° products, markets, partners and customers. Once the transaction has completed we will move swiftly to integrate the businesses whilst ensuring there is no impact on current service standards.”
Photo - David Kneeshaw.
