General Electric's (GE) sale of its UK life insurance group could be back on following interest from Swiss Re and XL Capital, the Daily Telegraph has reported.
The sale of GE Life seemed to have been abandoned in June, 2006 after South African insurer Sanlam, which had been in exclusive talks about the deal, pulled out.
The newspaper said investment bank Hawkpoint had been called in to get a new auction process underway in July, 2006. The first deadline for bids is believed to be July 14.
The Telegraph claims that the proposed sale is part of the group’s plan to get out of the insurance industry, following its sale of its reinsurance arm General Electric Insurance Solutions to Swiss Re for $7.4billion (GBP4 billion) last year.
GE Life, which has about GBP7 billion in assets, has an estimated embedded value of between GBP330 million and GBP420 million.