Fri, 31 Mar 2006
MARKET ANNOUNCEMENT
TOWER today advised that it has settled the purchase of the Australian Life company PrefSure following the receipt of regulatory approval from the Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB) and the Australian Prudential and Regulation Authority (APRA).
TOWER is well advanced for a smooth and seamless integration and a 3 April 2006 first working day of the merged company. The merged company will operate under the TOWER brand for trading purposes.
David Callander, formerly head of the TOWER Australian Life business is now Chief Executive Officer Retail Life; Geoff Black formerly the Managing Director of PrefSure is Chief Executive Officer Alliances and Group Risk and Grahame Evans remains as Chief Executive Officer Investments. Management structures reporting into these roles have also been finalised.
The Integration philosophy is to build on the combined strengths of TOWER and PrefSure, and to maintain market momentum while drawing upon the benefits of certain cost synergies.
The Group Risk business lines will immediately merge with one product set being offered to the market.
TOWER Group Managing Director, Jim Minto, said the merged company would be a market leader in Life Insurance in Australia.
“This is an attractive market with good underlying growth levels and with more opportunity to come from addressing the large levels of underinsurance that exist in Australia. The merged TOWER Australia would focus on being a leader in its competitive market areas; delivering high quality customer/adviser service and delivering value to TOWER shareholders.” The latest Plan for Life statistics to 31 Dec 2005 show that the merged company, TOWER Australia, is:
ENDS
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