Phoenix acquires Axa Wealth pension business for £375m

The acquisition will add £12.3bn of assets under management and about 910,000 policies to the group, and is expected to generate cashflows of £0.3bn in the first four years. Phoenix will fund the deal from a £190m equity placing and a new short-term debt facility and is subject to regulatory approval. The firm expects to generate cost synergies of £10m from 2017, following initial integration costs of £25m. The deal follows a strategic review and the sale of Axa's adviser platform Axa Elevate to Standard Life early in May. The acquisition confirms previous speculation, Axa and P...