Aegon seals £140m deal for Legal & General's Cofunds platform

Dutch insurer Aegon has completed the acquisition of Cofunds, the main investment platform in the UK for financial advisers, from Legal & General for £140m.

Upon completion of the deal, which will see Aegon receive the Investor Portfolio Service platform and the retail and institutional businesses of Cofunds, Legal & General will incur a net loss of approximately £65m on the disposal.

The FTSE 100-listed group bought the 75% of Cofunds it did not own in 2013 for £131m, valuing the platform at £175m and, since then, Cofunds' assets under administration have risen from £54bn in 2013 to £77.5bn at the end of June.

"Cofunds is at the point where it requires a significant upgrade in technology to exploit its leadership position in the UK platform market," said Legal & General's chief financial officer Mark Gregory.

"We have concluded that this long-term commitment is best achieved under Aegon's ownership as a specialist wealth platform provider."

The two firms have recently concluded two other transactions, including Legal & General's acquisition of Aegon's £2.9bn back book annuity portfolio and a five-year deal that will see the British insurer provide individual annuities to Aegon's pension customers.