Legal & General sells Cala Group for £1.35bn

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