According to Phoenix Group’s latest financial results, due to the “current uncertainty in the protection market” the board had decided that the sale would “not maximise value for shareholders”.

The report continued that it would “explore ways of enhancing the value SunLife generates within the group”.

The company had announced in June that it was exploring the sale of its SunLife business, which offers financial protection products directly to the over-50s market in the UK.

Phoenix Group said at the time that following a strategic review, the protection business was “no longer core” to its vision of being the leading retirement savings and income business in the UK.

The report noted that SunLife was one of five operating segments within Phoenix Group. The others include retirement solutions, pensions and savings, with-profits and Europe and other.

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However, it has now been aggregated with the Europe segment as they “share similar economic characteristics including the nature of products and services, types of customers and the nature of the regulatory environment”.

The Europe and other segment’s profit came to £50m during the first half of the year, which is a decrease from £85m in the same period last year

Phoenix Group said this was due to the “prior period one-off impact of experience and assumption updates which did not repeat”.

Overall, the group reported an adjusted operating profit of £360m, which is up from £313m this time last year. The strongest profits were its retirement solutions and pensions and savings businesses at £210m and £149m respectively.