![\"Aegon](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/b5b326e95471f42f4702aa4213a20053.jpeg\")
Aegon put its UK arm up for sale last year (Alamy\/PA) <\/p>\nStandard Life has agreed to buy rival Aegon\u2019s UK business for \u00a32 billion in a move set to create a pension and savings giant with 16 million customers and \u00a3480 million assets under administration.<\/p>\n
The deal will see Standard Life \u2013 recently rebranded from Phoenix Group \u2013 pay \u00a3750 million in cash, part-funded through debt, and issue 181.1 million new shares to Dutch financial firm Aegon.<\/p>\n
Aegon will own a 15.3% stake in FTSE 100 listed Standard Life following the acquisition and can appoint one non-executive director to the combined group\u2019s board.<\/p>\n
Andy Briggs, Standard Life chief executive, said: \u201cOur agreement to acquire Aegon UK significantly accelerates our vision to be the UK\u2019s leading retirement savings and income business.<\/p>\n
\u201cTogether, we will not only be stronger, we will be better.\u201d<\/p>\n
Standard Life is understood to have seen off rival bidders such as Lloyds Banking Group and Barclays to secure the deal.<\/p>\n
Aegon put its UK arm up for sale last year (Alamy\/PA) <\/p>\n
Amsterdam-listed Aegon, which is based in Schiphol in the Netherlands, put its UK arm up for sale at the end of last year as part of a group-wide overhaul that will see it move its headquarters to the US and be renamed as Transamerica.<\/p>\n
Standard Life said the deal \u2013 set to complete around the end of 2026 \u2013 will catapult it to second place in Britain\u2019s retail pensions and savings market and in the same position for workplace pensions, adding Aegon UK\u2019s 3.8 million customers and \u00a3160 billion in assets under management.<\/p>\n
It is aiming to drive savings of \u00a3110 million a year after the deal, with over half delivered by the end of 2029 and the rest by the end of 2031, driven by cuts made across combined group and head office operations and as the pair integrate their platforms.<\/p>\n
Lard Friese, Aegon chief executive, said: \u201cThe businesses are complementary and the combination offers an excellent outcome for Aegon UK\u2019s customers and colleagues.<\/p>\n
\u201cAegon\u2019s shareholding will provide an opportunity to participate in the future success of the enlarged group.\u201d<\/p>\n
Phoenix Group bought Standard Life\u2019s insurance business from the then Standard Life Aberdeen in 2018 and announced plans to rebrand as Standard Life last year.<\/p>\n
It also has brands including SunLife, Phoenix Life, ReAssure and Phoenix Wealth.<\/p>\n
Panmure Liberum analyst Abid Hussain said: \u201cOverall, this looks like a good deal, although there will be questions on why the expense and capital synergies take five years to fully realise; we would ordinarily expect this to be achieved in three years.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Standard Life has agreed to buy rival Aegon\u2019s UK business for \u00a32 billion in a move set to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14758,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[6808,6690,6807,6806,4448,5,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-14757","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uk","8":"tag-aegon","9":"tag-aegon-uk","10":"tag-combined-group","11":"tag-phoenix-group","12":"tag-standard-life","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116408046285256536","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14757"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14757\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}