Liberty Group Ltd., South Africa’s third-biggest insurer, is pressing ahead with plans to sell an Australian unit and a hedge fund business and hopes to complete the deals quickly, Liberty Chief Executive Myles Ruck said.
Liberty may receive A$150 million ($112 million) from the sale of Prefsure Life Ltd., the Australian Financial Review reported yesterday. Bidders for Prefsure, an Australian insurer, include Macquarie Bank Ltd., Promina Group Ltd., MetLife Inc., Tower Ltd. and Commonwealth Bank Ltd.’s Comminsure unit, the paper said. Bids closed on Jan. 9, it added.
“There has been interest in Prefsure,” Ruck said in a phone interview from Johannesburg today, declining to name the price or the bidders. The company had also made progress with the sale of its Liberty Ermitage Jersey Ltd. hedge fund business, he added.
