Legal & General exits Egypt in deal with Axa
UK INSURANCE and investments group Legal & General (L&G) has exited its Egypt business, Commercial International Life Insurance (CIL), selling it to Axa in a deal worth 763m Egyptian pounds (£62.9m).
L&G are joint owners of CIL, holding 55 per cent of the company, while Commercial International Bank owned 45 per cent.
The sale to Axa is expected to complete before the end of this year.
Axa said the deal will allow it to accelerate its development in Egypt, following the granting of its preliminary non-life insurance licence in March 2015.
The French insurance group plans to offer life, health and property & casualty insurance covers to individuals, SMEs and corporate clients in Egypt.
Simon Burke, L&G’s managing director of emerging markets, said: “Legal & General’s strategy of building scalable, customer focussed, long-term businesses has been achieved in Egypt, and now is the right time to hand the business over.”
Shares in L&G were up by 1.37 per cent yesterday.