The RL360° Group is expected to complete its purchase of the international life business Clerical Medical International (CMI) around the end of July, more than doubling its assets under management.
Why did you choose Clerical Medical in particular?
Going back to our management buyout in November 2013, we always had a clear plan for what we wanted to do with the business, and the plan was fairly simple – to continue the organic growth. We also felt there was scope to move into one or two regions, so phase two was to move into new territories.
Part three of the plan was always to look for suitable acquisitions. There were lots of reasons why an acquisition was good for RL360° and why an Isle of Man company ticks many boxes for a company like RL360°.
"If in the autumn someone said, “Let’s have lunch,” I would have that lunch quite happily."
CMI, in particular, had scale, it had a clean reputation and it was already closed to new business, so it was simpler to buy.
It has a large chunk of offshore bond business through private wealth managers in the UK, and it has a Hong Kong branch and a scattering of other policyholders around the world.
To date, the price for CMI has remained undisclosed. Can you say anything about that?
Sadly not. If you look at market sentiment as to what price assets are going for, it was in line with market expectations. If someone came in and analysed it they wouldn’t think we had got it outrageously cheaply, nor would they think we paid over the odds. I think we paid a fair price.
What is the plan for the integration of CMI?
We have done this before with Scottish Life International and Scottish Provident International, and we also separated ourselves from Royal London 18 months ago, so it is a battle-hardened management team we have at RL360°.
We know how to merge insurance companies and to work with regulators, so we probably have more experience than any other company of our type in doing this.
