Intact Financial (TSE:IFC) said on Monday that it reached an agreement to sell AXA Life Insurance to SSQ Financial Group for $300 million.
Intact Financial, the largest provider of property and casualty insurance in Canada, reported at the end of May that the company bought AXA Canada, a unit of Paris-based AXA Group, for $2.6 billion.
That transaction was completed on Monday and Intact immediately sold the life insurance operations.
AXA Life Insurance, based in Montreal, offers a wide-range of individual and specialized group insurance products. It has offices in Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary and Dartmouth, N.S.
Intact CEO Charles Brindamour said the sale of the AXA insurance business to SSQ Financial was the best value for its employees, distributors and customers.
“We have found in SSQ Financial Group a strong operator and are confident that the transaction will be most beneficial to all AXA Life Insurance stakeholders,” he said in a statement.
AXA Life Insurance will be renamed SSQ Insurance.
SSQ Financials CEO Rene Hamel said: “The announcement reflects our strategic priorities which are to accelerate our growth and diversify our activities through acquisitions.”
“We are proud of this acquisition which is in line with our objectives. The range of services offered by AXA Life Insurance will fit right in with our existing product offering and strengthen our position as a key player in insurance and financial products in Canada.”
The deal will help SSQ Financial strengthen its position in the individual insurance market, increase its presence across Canada and broaden its distribution network for its range of segregated funds while adding a complementary group insurance product portfolio.
The transaction should close early in 2012, and is subject to regulatory approval.
Intact said it plans to use profits from the sale to repay a term loan used to partially finance the acquisition of AXA Canada.
Shares of Intact were up 4% at $56.03 Monday morning.