Continuing on its acquisition trail,
Canadian life insurer Unity Life of Canada has clinched a deal with
US insurer MetLife that will see it acquire substantially all of
the insurance business of MetLife Canada for an undisclosed
sum.
Under the agreement, Unity Life will acquire
MetLife Canada’s block of some 100,000 life and health insurance
policies and a small number of group annuity contracts, including
policy liabilities of about C$300 million ($277 million) and
related assets.
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“This transaction is Unity Life’s largest
acquisition to date, and reaffirms our growth strategy of acquiring
complementary blocks of business that align with Unity Life’s
market and area of expertise, supporting the growth of our Canadian
business and reducing our unit costs,” said the insurer’s president
and CEO, Tony Poole.
The MetLife Canada deal follows Unity Life’s
acquisition of US insurer Conseco’s Washington National Insurance
unit’s block of Canadian occupational disability insurance in
December 2008 and acquisition of US insurer Forethought Financial
Group’s block of 20,000 Canadian funeral funding insurance policies
including policy liabilities of C$90 .6 million in October
2008.
In 2008 Unity Life reported premium revenue of
C$86.59 million, up 0.5 percent compared with 2007 while life
insurance in-force increased by 11 percent to C$15.36 million. As
at 31 December 2008, Unity Life had total assets of C$637 million,
an improvement of 13.4 percent compared with 2007, and had 227,000
active policies.
Unity Life, which can trace its origins back
to 1898, was until April 2008 a mutual insurer. Its conversion into
a stock life insurer came by way of Canada’s first sponsored
demutualisation which saw Canadian life insurer Foresters buy-out
Unity Life’s members for an undisclosed cash amount.
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By GlobalDataForesters is the trademark of The Independent
Order of Foresters, a not-for-profit fraternal benefit society
which provides its 735,000 members in Canada, the US and UK with
life and health insurance, annuities and educational savings
products.
Rating agency AM Best has assigned both
Foresters and Unity Life ratings of “A-” (Excellent).
