Aegon buys Cofunds from Legal & General

Aegon CEO Alex Wynaendts

Dutch insurance and investment giant Aegon, which has large UK operations in Edinburgh, said it would acquire Cofunds — an investment platform for financial advisers — from Legal & General for £140 million.

Aegon said the deal would complete the strategic transformation of its British business from traditional life insurance to a retail platform.

The firm said it expects to generate £60 million of annualized cost synergies by moving the Cofunds business onto Aegon technology and by delivering efficiencies as a result of removing duplication across the businesses.

Cofunds is a leading player in the retail platform space with more than 750,000 customers.

Aegon said that after a series of divestments and acquisitions it will now be the leader in the UK platform market.

Aegon CEO Alex Wynaendts said: “This transaction builds on the successful repositioning of our business in the UK and the strong relationship we have built with Legal & General.

“By executing on our strategy, we have transformed our business into a cost efficient, scalable platform business.

“The acquisition of Cofunds is a unique opportunity to further accelerate the execution of our UK strategy.

“It enables us to create substantial value as the number one provider in the fast-growing UK platform market.”