Chesnara plc has today announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire HSBC Life (UK) Ltd for £260m.
Completion is expected in early 2026, subject to customary regulatory approvals.
The acquisition represents the group’s largest transaction to date with approximately £4bn of assets under administration and approximately 454,000 policies being acquired by Chesnara, of which approximately 432,000 are protection products as of 31 December 2024, creating a combined group with approximately 1.4 million policies.
The acquisition is also expected to result in Chesnara’s inclusion in the FTSE 250 index and will help to boost Chesnara’s position as a life and pensions consolidator.
Chesnara’s primary focus is consolidating life and pensions books in the UK and the Netherlands, complemented by new business written across the group’s businesses in Sweden, the Netherlands and the UK.
Steve Murray, CEO of Chesnara stated: “The proposed acquisition of HSBC Life (UK) represents a material step up in scale for Chesnara Group.
“HSBC Life (UK) is a high-quality business operating in products that we know well and is capable, under our ownership, of generating substantial cash flows for many years.
“This highly accretive transaction will allow us to build on our strong, 20-year track record of uninterrupted dividend growth.
“It is also a further example of a major financial institution choosing to work with us, enhancing our reputation as a leading life and pensions consolidator.
“We are continuing to see a strong M&A pipeline across our group which we are well-positioned to execute on.
“We look forward to welcoming HSBC Life (UK) policyholders and the HSBC Life (UK) team to Chesnara and working closely with HSBC Bank plc to ensure the smooth transition of the business into the group.”
