Legal & General sells Egyptian joint venture to AXA

Legal & General and Commercial International Bank ASE (CIB) jointly announced the sale of Commercial Life Insurance Company (CIL) to AXA for $97.5m.

Legal & General owns 55% of CIL, while owns 45%.

Egypt-based CIL has 90,000 individual insurance policies and provides retirement benefits, group life and credit life insurance for around 350,000 customers.

Completion of the transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, including the receipt of regulatory approvals, and is expected to take place by the end of 2015.

Simon Burke, Managing Director Emerging Markets for Legal & General said: "Legal & General is delighted to have been part of the success of CIL for the past 17 years, and pleased to see the positive impact that life insurance has delivered to its Egyptian customers. 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."

At 09:27, L&G shares were up 1% at 266.10p.