The Competition and Market Authority (CMA) has launched a merger inquiry into the acquisition of AIG Life by Aviva.
It was announced last September that Aviva was acquiring the US giant protection business from its subsidiary Corebridge Financial for a quoted price of £460m.
The business Aviva is buying provides has 1.3m individual protection customers and 1.4m group protection members, which the insurers aim is to accelerate its growth in this market.
AIG bought the specialist life risk protection business known as Ellipse from reinsurer Munich Re back in 2018. Ellipse launched in 2009 and as of 2018, it was the UK’s sixth largest group life provider.
At the time of the announcement, Aviva said the transaction was expected to close in the first half of 2024.
The competition watchdog launched its merger inquiry today as it considers whether or not this merger will affect the competition of the market.
The CMA has provided interested parties with an invitation to comment which is opened until the 22 February. It has set a deadline for it to announce its decision whether or not to refer the merger for a phase two investigation to the 8 April.
The CMA launched a formal investigation into the merger of Vodafone and Three back in January, and last week, it kicked off an inquiry into the Sun and Mail publishers plans to combine print operations.
A spokesperson for Aviva said: “It’s typical for transactions to require regulatory approval and this deal is no different. We continue to expect the transaction to complete in the first half of 2024 subject to regulatory approvals, and we will provide an update in due course.”