Guardian acquires £5bn Phoenix annuity book

Phoenix, will transfer approximately £5bn in assets to Guardian to meet all future payments to the annuity policyholders. The deal will be completed in July. The companies will then work together to transfer the policies to Guardian under Part VII of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000. Following the transfer, Guardian will manage approximately £13bn of assets on behalf of more than 600,000 customers. Guardian chief executive Jonathan Yates said: "The transaction represents an important next step for Guardian as we pursue our closed life fund consolidation strategy in th...