LIFE Company Consolidation Group (LCCG), the owner of the Dublin-based specialist insurance company Harcourt Life, has acquired business with investments under management of €13bn in two separate deals with the industry heavyweights Axa and Aviva.
LCCG specialises in the acquisition of closed life insurance books. These are investment companies that are no longer open for new business and are in so-called run-off. Harcourt Life, which is the former Anglo Irish Assurance Company, is LCCG’s main operating subsidiary.
Last year Harcourt purchased Scottish Mutual International, a Dublin-based life assurance company.
LCCG last week purchased Axa’s book of offshore bonds, consisting of £9bn (€11.5bn) of assets under management. The Sunday Times has also learnt that LCCG has in recent weeks agreed to buy Aviva Life International, which has €1.5bn of assets under management, most in single premium investments.
The Aviva book closed to new business in 2010. The company, a subsidiary of the British insurer, employed 11 people here.
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Both the Aviva and Axa insurance businesses will now be managed in Dublin by Harcourt.
The two deals represent significant steps in LCCG’s ambitions to consolidate the European closed life assurance business. It is headed by Paul Thompson and Ian Maidens, both experienced executives in the industry.
Thompson is a former group chief executive of Britannic Group. He merged it with Resolution, an insurance investment firm that was founded by Clive Cowdery.
It was subsequently sold to Pearl Insurance, and is now Phoenix Life.
LCCG is backed by Oaktree Capital, and plans to list on the stock market.