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Shares in Phoenix Group dropped on Monday as the financial services giant axed plans to sell its SunLife division.
At 562p per share, the FTSE 100 firm was last 2.5% lower in start-of-week trading, making it the index’s biggest faller.
Phoenix — which put SunLife on the chopping block back in June — said that “given the current uncertainty in the protection market, the board has decided to discontinue the sale process and will focus on enhancing the value it generates within the group.”
It described SunLife as “a leading provider of financial protection products direct to the over 50s market in the UK and a valuable asset which contributes to the group’s new business growth.”
Three months ago, Phoenix said it was exploring a possible sale “having received a number of initial expressions of interest from third parties.”
SunLife contributed pre-tax profit of £16 million in…
