Insurance giant Axa planning to sell off wealth management division in UK
Axa has brought in advisors to help it sell off some of its UK businesses, including parts of their wealth management division, the Sunday Times reported today.
Sources told the Sunday newspaper that the insurer, who is headquartered in France, had grown weary of the UK’s regulatory environment and had called in bankers at Barclays and Fenchurch Advisory Partners to assist with the sale.
Axa and Barclays both declined to comment on the sale plans, and City A.M. could not reach Fenchurch Advisory Partners.
In 2010, Axa sold most of its UK life insurance business, Axa Sun Life, to Clive Cowdery’s Resolution, which later renamed Friends Life and was purchased by fellow insurer Aviva in 2014.
In its half-year results for 2015, released at the start of August, Axa reported an increase in total revenue of two per cent on a constant currency basis to €55bn (£38.6bn on the date the results were announced) but a seven per cent decrease in net income to €3.1bn.