The chief distribution officer of Aegon UK has said his company will not be changing its strategy towards advice businesses following its acquisition of Cofunds.
Mark Till said he is “very clear” that Aegon is an intermediated business and that there are no plans to changes its holdings in advice firms.
Aegon owns a minority stake in Tenet - along with Aviva and Standard Life - and fully owns Origen Financial Services.
Mr Till said: “To the best of my knowledge we have no plans to change our stake in Tenet and our ownership of Origen.
“What we are really clear about is we are not going to grow our own advised distribution business. We are not going to buy up IFA firms to build a competing network.
The thing our acquisition of Cofunds says very clearly is that Aegon is an intermediated business, which will be built by providing advisers with the products and services they want.“The thing our acquisition of Cofunds says very clearly is that Aegon is an intermediated business, which will be built by providing advisers with the products and services they want.”
Since its takeover of Friends Life, Norwich-based Aviva has owned 47 per cent of Tenet while Standard Life and Aegon UK each own 23 per cent.
The remaining stake in the company is owned by a collection of individual shareholders including former executives.
There have been rumours in recent months that Tenet might be sold, with Intrinsic suggested as one potential buyer.
In June Mike O’Brien, managing director of TenetConnect and TenetSelect, said he had “no doubt” at least part of the business would be sold at some point in the future because Aviva had said it no longer wanted to be in distribution.
Speaking after the Cofunds deal was announced, Tenet chief executive Martin Greenwood said it was “business as usual” for the company.
