LONDON, March 26 (Reuters) - British insurer Legal & General has agreed to buy the 75 percent of Cofunds Holdings itdoes not already own, in a deal valuing the investment fundsupermarket at 175 million pounds ($266 million).
Buying the rest of Cofunds using 131 million pounds of L&G'scash reserves will help it reach a goal to expand in theinvestment platform business, the company said in statement onTuesday.
It expects the deal to conclude within the first half of theyear and to boost its own profits by the end of 2014.
Fund supermarkets provide investment advisors and clientswith administration and management services for theirportfolios.
Founded in 2001, Cofunds has more than 50 billion pounds inassets under administration and a 22 percent share of the UKinvestment platform market, L&G said.
Following the acquisition, L&G's Savings division will haveassets under administration of 103 billion pounds.
L&G said it expected cost savings associated with the dealto be 11 million pounds per year from 2015, with a one-offinvestment cost of around 17 million pounds.
Legal & General (LGEN)