CHESNARA - Landing the big one
Life assurance
Mkt Cap (£m) 343.3
Price (p) 285.0
After a longer wait than planned, Chesnara has announced a large acquisition, HSBC Life (UK). At a cost of £260m, it is over 70% of Chesnara’s pre-announcement market capitalisation and will be funded by a mixture of equity, existing cash resources (primarily from the earlier Tier 2 bond issue) and drawing down from a newly increased revolving credit facility. The rights issue should complete by 23 July 2025, with deal completion in early 2026. There is a one-off additional uplift to the dividend per share (adjusted for the rights issue) of 6%, which will apply to the 2025 final and 2026 interim dividends.