Sun Life Financial Inc. of Toronto said Wednesday that it has agreed to buy Commonwealth Bank of Australia's insurance and pension assets in Hong Kong for $451 million.
Sun Life Financial (Hong Kong) Ltd., the local unit of the Canadian company, said its deal for CMG Asia Ltd. and CommServe Financial Ltd. would close within three months.
The purchase would turn Sun Life into the seventh-largest life insurance company in Hong Kong, as measured by premiums from new sales, the company said.
The deal is to be financed from cash resources, Sun Life said, and is expected to be immediately accretive to earnings.
Commonwealth Bank of Australia's regional managing director, Peter Fancke, said in a statement that the deal would not affect its commitment to developing strategic initiatives in Asia. The Australian bank recently invested in two small Chinese banks, Jinan City Commercial Bank and Hangzhou City Commercial Bank.
