Global broker Arthur J Gallagher has bought the broking and premium funding assets of Wesfarmers for $1.01 billion.

The deal, which will see OAMPS in Australia and Crombie Lockwood in New Zealand become part of the growing Gallagher presence in the region, was announced this morning by Wesfarmers.

Wesfarmers will also receive about $150 million to repay funding of its premium funding operations.

Market rumours in the past couple of weeks had centred on the possibility of a sale to Gallaghers, despite Wesfarmers’ hints earlier that it preferred to maximise the price for its broking assets via a public listing.

Wesfarmers says the sale will allow it to record a pre-tax profit on the assets of $310-350 million.

More details in regular our bulletin this afternoon.