Allianz £242m Legal & General deal approved

The European Commission has approved Allianz’s £242m deal to acquire Legal & General’s (L&G) insurance arm.

The announcement came last week on Friday, after the European union’s executive arm found the deal would not cause interference or concerns over competition in the market.

It follows Allianz’s announcement that its proposed to purchase Legal & General’s insurance business back in May. In August Jon Dye, Allianz’s chief executive told Insurance Times that once the transition of LV=, the firm’s previous acquisition is complete it will move to recreate this implementation for L&G. 

An Allianz Insurance spokesperson, said: “We are pleased with the EU Commission’s decision to approve the acquisition of Legal & General’s UK insurance business. The Group is confident about the prospects for the UK insurance market over the long-term and the purchase of L&G’s insurance business supports that position.”

L&G has also been contacted for comment. 

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Ben Potts, managing director at Novidea, said that” more consolidation in the broker space is not surprising”.

He continued: “The race for scale continues. How successful the integration is will depend in no small way on the technology landscape of the businesses and their integration. Legacy technology and the ability to leverage data is one of the key reasons why insurance acquisitions don’t always deliver on their original promises. But technology can also be the key to helping brokers navigate those tentative, post-merger days, reducing the time it takes for a buyer to get their arms around the acquired business from over a year to months. To maximise merger success, and fast, brokers should be making investment in technology a top priority.”