Legal & General sells Suffolk Life for £45m

Legal & General has sold self-invested personal pension provider and administrator Suffolk Like to Curtis Bank for £45m.

The deal is subject to an underwritten placing by Curtis Banks and regulatory approval, both of which are expected in the first half of the year.

Suffolk Life administers around 26,500 plans, including 3,600 commercial properties and its assets under administration totalled £8.7bn as at 30 November.

Chief finance officer Mark Gregory said that Suffolk was “not core to our focused strategy going forward".

"Teaming up with Curtis Banks will help it to realise its strong potential, by creating one of the UK's largest SIPP providers."

Legal & General is disposing of non-core businesses and focusing on core activities it believes it can achieve significant scale and attractive returns on capital.

The group disposed of Legal & General France, Legal & General Ireland and Egypt in 2015.