Irish Life sold for €1.3bn
It is believed there will be roughly 250 redundancies as a result of the sale of Irish Life to the Canadian firm Great-West Lifeco. Most of these redundancies, which will take place over the next 18 months, are expected to be voluntary.
The divestment is the first sale of a fully State-owned asset since the IMF-EU bailout in Nov 2010.
The €1.3bn will be used to pay down national debt, including the €64bn used to rescue the banking system, it was confirmed by Finance Minister Michael Noonan’s officials.
There are no implications for existing customers. The deal is expected to be completed by July this year, subject to regulatory approval. Irish Life has 1m customers and about €37bn of assets under management
