Sun Life to acquire Prime Advisors, adding $13 billion in assets

(Bloomberg) — Sun Life Financial Inc. agreed to buy asset manager Prime Advisors as Canada’s third-largest life insurer seeks to boost fee income.

The cash deal for Redmond, Washington-based Prime Advisors is set to be completed in July, SunLife said in a statement Tuesday that didn’t disclose terms. The purchase would add $13 billion in assets to the Toronto-based firm’s investment-management unit, bringing the total it oversees for third parties to C$50 billion ($40 billion).

Managing money for pension funds and smaller insurers “is not a heavy capital user unlike the insurance businesses and it’s a business that’s growing,” Sun Life Chief Investment Officer Stephen Peacher said by phone. “The ability to go outside the public markets to find alternative strategies to access yield — whether it’s real estate, commercial mortgages or private fixed income — that’s another area that institutions are trending to.”