US financial services group could pay £800m to £850m for the division, reports say
US financial services group Guggenheim Partners is in exclusive talks to buy Aviva’s US life and annuities business, the Sunday Telegraph reports.
The paper said the company’s life insurance subsidiary, Guggenheim Life is working with private equity house Apollo on a deal that could value the Aviva unit at between £800m and £850m.
It added that Guggenheim/Apollo had beaten a rival bid from hedge fund Harbinger Partners.
Aviva revealed in its third-quarter interim management statement on 8 November that it was in talks with potential buyers of its US life and annuities business. The company said it expected to sell the business at a “substantial discount” to the unit’s IFRS book value of £2.4bn.
At best, the reported Guggenheim deal would result in a loss of £1.6bn, or 65%, of the unit’s book value, for Aviva.
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