Legal & General sells Cala Group for £1.35bn

Legal & General said it had sold UK house builder Cala for £1.35bn to its former joint venture partner Patron Capital and investment group Sixth Street Partners as it looks to focus on its main businesses.

The insurer said it would receive cash proceeds of £1.16bn, of which £500m will be paid at closing with the rest paid over the next five years.

António Simões, L&G’s chief executive, said the deal showed “continued momentum in executing our strategy, simplifying our portfolio to enable a sharper focus on our core, synergistic businesses”.

"Cala has been an important part of L&G for over a decade, with profits increasing ten-fold since our initial investment in 2013," said L&G chief executive Antonio Simoes.

Patron formerly owned 46.5% of Cala alongside L&G but offloaded its share in 2018 at a valuation of £605m. The house builder produced just under 3,000 homes last year.

L&G said proceeds from the sale would be used for reinvestment and returns to shareholders through ongoing buybacks.

Reporting by Frank Prenesti for Sharecast.com