UK’s Aviva to Sell Asia/Middle East Life Unit to Focus on Core Markets

Aviva, Britain’s biggest life insurer, said it would sell Friends Provident International (FPIL), which provides life assurance and investment products in Asia and the Middle East, to a unit of International Financial Group for 340 million pounds ($443 million).

The sale, which follows a strategic review, will allow Aviva to further reallocate capital to businesses that can bring higher returns and grow its business across Asia, the insurer said.

“Aviva has concluded that the business is not central to the group’s strategy to focus on a small number of markets where it has scale and profitability or a distinct competitive advantage,” it said in a statement on Wednesday.

(Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru; editing by Simon Jessop)