WINNIPEG, MB, Jan. 2, 2024 /CNW/ - Great-West Lifeco Inc.
("Lifeco") (TSX: GWO) today announced the successful completion of
the sale of Putnam Investments to Franklin Resources, Inc. (NYSE:
BEN), operating as Franklin
Templeton, one of the world's largest independent and
diversified asset managers.
"As client needs for asset management continue to evolve,
Franklin Templeton's scale and
breadth, together with Putnam's
complementary capabilities, will drive positive outcomes for their
stakeholders," said Paul Mahon,
President and Chief Executive Officer, Great-West Lifeco. "This
transaction furthers Lifeco's strategy of building and extending
strategic partnerships with best-in-class asset managers to support
our clients' retirement, group benefits, and personal wealth
management needs."
Consistent with our previous announcement, the transaction is
not expected to have a material financial impact for Great-West
Lifeco at close. Further details will be provided as part of the
company's year-end disclosures in February
2024.
About Great-West Lifeco
Great-West Lifeco is an
international financial services holding company with interests in
life insurance, health insurance, retirement and investment
services, asset management and reinsurance businesses. We operate
in Canada, the United States and Europe under the brands Canada Life, Empower,
and Irish Life. At the end of 2022,
our companies had approximately 31,000 employees, 234,500 advisor
relationships, and thousands of distribution partners – all serving
over 38 million customer relationships across these regions.
Great-West Lifeco trades on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX)
under the ticker symbol GWO and is a member of the Power
Corporation group of companies. To learn more, visit
greatwestlifeco.com.
Cautionary Note regarding Forward-Looking
Information
This release contains forward-looking
information. Forward-looking information includes statements that
are predictive in nature, depend upon or refer to future events or
conditions, or include words such as "will", "may", "expects",
"anticipates", "intends", "plans", "believes", "estimates",
"objective", "target", "potential" and other similar expressions or
negative versions thereof. Forward-looking information includes,
without limitation, statements about the expected benefits to
Great-West Lifeco ("Lifeco", or the "Company"), Putnam and Franklin
Templeton resulting from the sale of Putnam and the related strategic partnership
and other statements concerning the Company and the operations,
business, financial condition, expected financial performance,
ongoing business strategies or prospects of the Company,
Putnam and Franklin Templeton.
Forward-looking statements are based on expectations, forecasts,
estimates, predictions, projections and conclusions about future
events that were current at the time of the statements and are
inherently subject to, among other things, risks, uncertainties and
assumptions about the Company, economic factors and the financial
services industry generally, including the insurance, asset
management, personal wealth and retirement industries. They are not
guarantees of future performance, and the reader is cautioned that
actual events and results could differ materially from those
expressed or implied by forward-looking statements. Many of these
assumptions are based on factors and events that are not within the
control of the Company and there is no assurance that they will
prove to be correct. In all cases, whether or not actual results
differ from forward-looking information may depend on numerous
factors, developments and assumptions, including, without
limitation, assumptions around sales, fee rates, asset breakdowns,
lapses, plan contributions, redemptions and market returns,
customer behaviour (including customer response to new products),
the Company's reputation, market prices for products provided,
sales levels, premium income, fee income, expense levels, mortality
experience, morbidity experience, policy and plan lapse rates,
participant net contribution, reinsurance arrangements, liquidity
requirements, capital requirements, credit ratings, taxes,
inflation, interest and foreign exchange rates, investment values,
hedging activities, global equity and capital markets (including
continued access to equity and debt markets), industry sector and
individual debt issuers' financial conditions (particularly in
certain industries that may comprise part of the Company's
investment portfolio), business competition, impairments of
goodwill and other intangible assets, the Company's ability to
execute strategic plans and changes to strategic plans,
technological changes, breaches or failure of information systems
and security (including cyber attacks), payments required under
investment products, changes in local and international laws and
regulations, changes in accounting policies and the effect of
applying future accounting policy changes, changes in actuarial
standards, unexpected judicial or regulatory proceedings,
catastrophic events, continuity and availability of personnel and
third party service providers, the Company's ability to complete
strategic transactions and integrate acquisitions, unplanned
material changes to the Company's facilities, customer and employee
relations or credit arrangements, levels of administrative and
operational efficiencies, changes in trade organizations, and other
general economic, political and market factors in North America and internationally. The reader
is cautioned that the foregoing list of assumptions and factors is
not exhaustive, and there may be other factors listed in the
Company's filings with securities regulators, including factors set
out in the Company's 2022 Annual MD&A under "Risk Management
and Control Practices" and "Summary of Critical Accounting
Estimates" and in the Company's annual information form dated
February 8, 2023 under "Risk
Factors", which, along with other filings, are available for review
at www.sedarplus.com. The reader is also cautioned to consider
these and other factors, uncertainties and potential events
carefully and not to place undue reliance on forward-looking
information. Other than as specifically required by applicable law,
the Company does not intend to update any forward-looking
information whether as a result of new information, future events
or otherwise.
SOURCE Great-West Lifeco Inc.