Aviva offloads stake in life insurance joint venture

Aviva is selling its 50% stake in life insurance joint venture Antarius to French bank Société Générale, for £425m (€500m).

The sale of Antarius, which is currently owned by Aviva and Crédit du Nord, a subsidiary of Société Générale, which took up its option to buy Aviva's stake in Antarius in 2015.

With regulatory approval already received, the sale is expected to close on 1 April.

As part of the deal, Aviva Investors France has agreed with SocGen subsidiary Sogecap to continue managing the €10bn worth of assets held by Antarius.

The £425m sale price represents about 1.7 times Aviva's share of the net asset value of Antarius and 16.4 times Aviva's share of Antarius’ earnings after tax.

At roughly £180m more than Aviva's book value it further increases Solvency II capital by about £200m.

Aviva chief executive Mark Wilson said: "This is a good deal at an attractive valuation and the sale realises a strong return for our shareholders. We have also agreed a new investment management mandate with Antarius and we look forward to continuing our long and successful partnership with Société Générale."