National Australia Bank (NAB) has signed a deal worth NZD 290 million ($206.45 million) to divest BNZ Life, its life insurance business in New Zealand to Partners Life, a Kiwi life and health insurance company.

The Australian lender is taking up the sale in order to focus on its main banking businesses in Australia and New Zealand.

Commenting on Partners Life acquisition of BNZ Life, Angela Mentis – BNZ Life CEO, said: “Ensuring BNZ customers continue to access insurance remains important to us. We’re confident that this sale will provide the best outcome for our insurance customers and that they will continue to receive a high standard of customer service from a New Zealand insurance provider with a strong local reputation.”

Partners Life said that it has maintained a close business partnership with BNZ Life for a long time, and the acquisition is a natural progression of that.

The Kiwi life and health insurance company hopes the scale of the enlarged company, post-acquisition, to increase its efficiency by a significant extent and also provide the base for enabling further innovations.

Naomi Ballantyne – Partners Life Managing Director, commenting on Partners Life acquisition of BNZ Life, said: “I am absolutely delighted for Partners Life to acquire such a long-standing and respected life insurance business from NAB and we are intent on ensuring that all BNZ Life and Partners Life customers benefit from this transaction.”

As part of the transaction, BNZ Life and Partners Life has forged an exclusive 10-year agreement to facilitate the referral of the former’s customers with life insurance needs. The agreement will be based on Partners Life continuing to maintain the agreed operating standards, stated National Australia Bank.

  Angela Mentis, BNZ Life, Insurance acquisition news, Insurance industry news, life insurance, Naomi Ballantyne, National Australia Bank, New Zealand, Partners Life