Sina U.S. Stocks -- Bloomberg, early hours of February 23, Beijing time: According to people familiar with the matter, Phoenix Group is in advanced-stage negotiations to acquire the insurance business of Standard Life Aberdeen plc, seeking to drive growth through acquisitions.

The people, who asked not to be named, said Phoenix Group plans to raise about £1 billion (about $1.4 billion) to help pay the consideration; the deal could be announced as early as this week. The people said no final agreement has been reached and talks could still fall apart.

Representatives of both companies declined to comment.

Earlier, a person familiar with the matter said Lloyds and Standard Life ended talks to merge their insurance businesses because they could not agree on control of the combined entity. In 2016, Phoenix Group acquired Deutsche Bank's Abbey Life Assurance Co. and AXA Group's UK pension and insurance businesses.

Source: Sina  2018-02-23