RSA agrees to sell two Asian branches for about £130m

RSA Insurance Group agreed to sell the insurance businesses of its branches in Singapore and Hong Kong to Allied World Assurance Co for about £130m (€163m) in cash as it retreats from markets.

The sale of RSA Singapore and RSA Hong Kong will result to a gain on sale of about £110m and an addition to the group’s tangible net assets of £95m, boosting capital, the insurer said in a statement yesterday. The transactions will be completed early 2015.

RSA chief executive Stephen Hester is seeking to reverse a decade of acquisitions that saw RSA expand in more than 30 countries. The former banker said last month that he’s ahead of a three-year plan to remake the insurer as he mulls further asset sales in the wake of an accounting scandal in Ireland last year and a £775m rights issue.