Zurich Financial Services has scrapped plans to sell its US life insurance business. The Swiss group said it had reviewed the future of the operation and decided that the best solution would be to keep it as a core part of its business.
However, Reuters reported sources close to the sale talks as saying that ZFS failed to get anything near the $1.5bn (£1.04bn) it wanted.
ZFS never officially said that it was looking to sell its US life business, but it is understood that it had been probing potential buyers, including Prudential, the UK insurer, and General Electric's GE Capital, for months.
Zurich has raised more than $5bn (£3.5bn) in the last year selling off operations to reduce its debt.
It offloaded US funds arm Zurich Scudder Investments last year to Deutsche Bank, for about $2.5bn (£1.7bn), and also spun off its reinsurance arm Converium for more than $2bn (£1.4bn). It also sold its stake in Swiss insurer Baloise.
