Aviva PLC, Britain’s second-biggest insurer, said its investment arm plans to exit its hedge funds-of-funds businesses as it scales back in the U.S.
“We are working with our affiliates and the underlying hedge fund managers on an orderly transition plan,” London-based Aviva said Tuesday in an e-mailed statement.
The hedge funds-of-funds unit manages about $2 billion.
Aviva has been trimming some operations, reaching a deal in 2012 to sell a U.S. life and annuity business to an insurer tied to Apollo Global Management. Aviva Investors, the investment unit, fired 6% of its staff last year as part of wider jobs cuts by the parent company. The unit’s CEO, Euan Munro, joined in January.
Aviva announced Nov. 21 that it was in talks to acquire Friends Life Group Ltd., a smaller British insurer. Aviva would pay about £5.3 billion ($8.4 billion).
