Insurer Aviva is buying the UK protection arm of American International Group (AIG) for £460m.

The deal will add 1.3 million individual protection customers and 1.4 million group members to Aviva.

Aviva said the combined businesses will, “create a more efficient platform from which to serve existing and new customers”.

As part of the transaction, Aviva said it will also “re-capture the economics of the business that AIG Life UK reinsures internally to the wider AIG Group.”

Chief executive Amanda Blanc said: “This acquisition brings significant strategic and financial benefits to Aviva.

“It strengthens our prospects in the highly attractive UK protection market and continues our progress in repositioning the group towards capital-light growth.”

The deal will see Aviva buy AIG UK from Corebridge Financial, Inc, a New York-listed company majority-owned by AIG.

It is subject to customary closing conditions including regulatory approvals and is expected to complete in the first half of 2024.

AIG Life was set up in 2014 following AIG’s takeover of Ageas Protect and it launched into the protection market four years later, with its acquisition of Ellipse from Munich Re.

AIG Life reported £158m of new business sales in 2022.