Great-West To Acquire Part Of MetLife 401(k) Business

By Staff Writer

June 26, 2006 at 05:32 AM

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A Canadian company plans to buy a bigger share of the U.S. retirement plan market.

Great-West Lifeco Inc., Winnipeg, Manitoba, says a subsidiary, Great-West Life & Annuity Insurance Company, has agreed to acquire a block of 2,600 small and midsize retirement plans from a unit of MetLife Inc., New York.

The plans serve 300,000 participants and manage about $7.5 billion in assets.

The deal will include the wholesalers, relationship managers and sales associates who support the business, and it also will include some defined benefit plan business, according to Great-West, which is a unit of the Power Corp. of Canada, Montreal.

Great-West is not discussing the price of the deal, but it says it hopes to complete the purchase by Dec. 31.

Great-West Life & Annuity now manages 17,500 retirement plans with 2.9 million participants and $86 billion in assets.

The deal will double the unit's distribution capacity and the number of participants in Great-West Life & Annuity full-service 401(k) plans, Great-West says.

"This acquisition advances our strategy to position Great-West Life & Annuity as a top provider of retirement plans and services in the U.S.," Great-West President Raymond McFeetors says in a statement about the deal. "It gives us a significantly broader presence in our target market, the midsize 401(k) segment."

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