Liberty Life - Disposal Of Prefsure Holdings Limit
LGL
LIBU
Liberty Life - Disposal Of Prefsure Holdings Limited
Liberty Group Limited
(Registration number 1957/002788/06)
(Incorporated in the Republic of South Africa)
Share Code: LGL
ISIN Code: ZAE000057360
("Liberty Life")
Following the announcement by Liberty Life in November 2005 that it was
contemplating the sale of its Australian life assurance business, Prefsure
Holdings Limited ("Prefsure"), shareholders of Liberty Life are informed that an
agreement has been reached with Tower Limited to acquire Prefsure for AUS$145
million.
Prefsure was acquired by Liberty Life when it bought Capital Alliance Holdings
Limited ("CAHL") in April 2005. The decision to dispose of Prefsure is in line
with Liberty"s stated intention of focusing on the domestic life assurance
market for the foreseeable future.
The agreement is subject to certain conditions precedent including, inter alia,
regulatory approval and approval from the South African Reserve Bank.
Should the conditions precedent be met, it is expected that the net amount to be
received by Liberty Life, after payments to minorities, taxes and costs, will be
approximately AUS$84 million or R380 million. This represents an uplift of
approximately 5% to 10% on the carrying value in CAHL"s books.
In the November announcement referred to above, reference was also made to the
possible sale of Liberty Ermitage, Liberty"s offshore hedge fund asset manager.
Negotiations are still under way and a further announcement on this matter will
be made in due course.
Liberty was advised by Deutsche Bank on the sale of Prefsure.
Johannesburg
30 January 2006
Sponsor
Merrill Lynch
Date: 30/01/2006 08:36:02 AM Produced by the JSE SENS Department
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