SWEDEN – Life insurance company Förenade Liv is selling its institutional life insurance arm, Förenade Liv Gruppförsäkring, to insurance group Folksam.

“Our goal is to be the biggest institutional professional pensions provider in Sweden by 2003. The acquisition of Förenade Liv’s collective insurance organisation is a very important step in our on-going institutional commitment,” says Tore Andersson, managing director of Folksam.

The acquired company administers around SEK400m (e45m) in optional group insurance for 1,900 organisations and employers, with half a million insured.

“The decisive point in the deal was that we get to reach to several large associations within TCO [The Swedish Confederation of Professional_Employees] and Saco [The Swedish Confederation of Professional_Associations], who want total insurance solutions,” says Andersson.
“At the same time Folksam saves a lot on development costs; cash that can be invested direct to our customers and products instead,” he adds.

Förenade Liv Gruppförsäkring will keep its trademark and will not be integrated to Folksam’s collective insurance group. According to plans the 60 employees will also move with the deal, says Folksam.

Last year, Folksam bought a majority share in public authority pensions provider and asset manager, KPA from its public owners, municipality council federation Kommunalförbundet and county council federation, Landstingsförbundet.
The federations still own two fifths of KPA.

Before the deal with Förenade Liv, Folksam had total assets under management of around SEK110bn.