A deal which saw Resolution Life’s AU$3.0 billion acquisition of the Australian and New Zealand wealth protection and mature businesses of AMP Limited has just won the M&A Deal of the Year at the IFLR Asia Pacific Awards.

The IFLR Asia Pacific Awards are based solely on legal innovation and on deals that break legal ground, and focusing on cross-border deals that closed in 2020.

The most innovative and important aspect of this transaction is that it represents the first truly large consolidation transaction in Asia Pacific.  While the European and US markets have long focused on the consolidation of capital-intensive life insurance businesses and their acquisition by specialist consolidators, this trend is new in Asia Pacific and is expected to increase in the coming years, particularly since life insurers in a number of Asian insurance markets have capital-intensive back books that are increasingly difficult to service in a low-interest environment. The Resolution deal gives credibility to consolidators in the Australian and the wider Asia Pacific market.

The deal also previously won M&A Deal Advisor of the Year at InsuranceAsia News Awards for Excellence 2020.

The Debevoise team advising Resolution Life was led by Hong Kong partner Edwin Northover. The team included international counsel Allison Lee and Jan Buschmann and ex-associate Jayne So  (Hong Kong). Debt financing aspects of the transaction were led by our London finance team and included partners Alan Davies and Thomas Smith, with associates Anna Moore and Almas Daud (London). Ashurst and Bell Gully acted as local counsel for Resolution Life.