Swiss Re buys Barclays life arm for $1.5 billion

Swiss Re, the world's largest reinsurer, agreed to buy Barclays' life assurance portfolio for 753 million pounds ($1.48 billion) in cash, even as it wrote down more credit assets. Swiss Re said on Tuesday it would acquire about 760,000 life insurance and pension policies and annuity contracts, for which Barclays had stopped writing new business since 2001, representing 6.8 billion pounds in invested assets.
The deal, boosting its Admin Re unit, which buys life insurance portfolios after other firms have stopped writing new business, showed that Swiss Re was strong enough to take advantage of tough markets, Chief Executive Jacques Aigrain said. "The difficult market environment also creates new opportunities," he said. "Swiss Re has the execution capability and capital strength to seize these opportunities."