Britain’s competition watchdog has cleared the recent sale of AXA’s UK investment and pensions businesses to Phoenix Group.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said it would not refer the French insurer’s transaction for further probe,
Reuters reported.
“The CMA has cleared the completed acquisition by Phoenix Group Holdings of SunLife and Embassy businesses,” the regulator announced on its website on August 2.
It was reported last May that Pearl Life Holdings, a subsidiary of Phoenix, will pay £375 million to take control of insurance unit SunLife and pensions and investments arm Embassy.
Under the terms of the agreement with AXA, Pearl Life will add £12.3 billion in assets under management along with 910,000 policies.
Last month, the CMA launched an inquiry into the AXA-Phoenix transaction to determine if it will result in a “substantial lessening of competition within any market or markets in the UK for goods or services.”
The deal with Phoenix is the latest in a series of sell-offs from the insurance giant. Earlier this year, AXA announced that it would sell Elevate, its portfolio service business, to Standard Life.
The insurance giant had also announced that it was pulling out of tobacco investments – a former £1.8 billion portfolio for the French insurer – due to huge economic costs and “tragic” human damage.
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UK watchdog to look at AXA-Phoenix deal
AXA continues UK sell-off
AXA drops tobacco industry investments
