Meanwhile, Royal & SunAlliance has sold another asset as it continues with its $2.1 billion disposal program that will leave it as a general insurer. Friends Provident has paid $350 million for the company’s offshore life and investment arm, R&SA International Financial Services. Its Australian life and funds management assets remain on the block but as yet unsold.

CEO Bob Mendelsohn said in a statement that the sale represents “another material step” in the company’s divestment program that will see it become a pure general insurer.