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Royal London to buy Co-op Bank divisions
Members of life and pensions mutual Royal London have agreed to proposals to acquire the life insurance and asset management businesses of the Co-operative Banking Group.
The acquisition will see the Co-op receive £219m in total with £39m paid up front, and £180m from a CIS fund within the life and pensions division returned to the Co-op on completion of the deal.
If signed off by the regulators – the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) – the acquisition is likely to be completed in late summer 2013.
Some 95% of the members voted in favour of the motion at the company’s extraordinary general meeting (EGM) in London this morning.
The company required just a simple majority member vote in favour for the proposals to be passed.
Royal London chairman Tim Melville-Ross said: “The acquisition increases our scale, capabilities, profitability and financial strength.
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“The board believes it will support further our mutual dividend policy which has already seen over £325m allocated to our members accounts since 2007.”