Britain’s mutually-owned Cooperative Group is considering a sale of its life insurance business as part of a reorganisation of its financial services division, newspapers reported on Sunday.
The Cooperative, which runs businesses ranging from supermarkets to funeral homes, has appointed Deutsche Bank to review the future of its life insurance arm, the Sunday Times and the Mail on Sunday said.
Potential bidders for the business, which has 18 billion pounds ($28.25 billion) in assets, include listed insurers Legal & General, Aviva, Resolution and Phoenix Group, as well as rival mutual insurer Royal London, the papers said.
The Cooperative could not immediately be reached. Deutsche Bank declined to comment.
The reports come as Cooperative’s financial services division is pressing ahead with the integration of Britannia, Britain’s second-biggest building society, which it bought in January last year.
Source : Reuters
