Guardian Assurance sells interest in E-L Financial Services

On December 14, 2015, Guardian Assurance Limited (Guardian Assurance) completed the sale of its 19 per cent interest in E-L Financial Services Limited (ELFS), the parent company of The Empire Life Insurance Company (Empire Life), to E-L Financial Corporation Limited (E-L Financial) for $200 million. As a result of this sale, E-L Financial will own 100 per cent of ELFS, which owns 98.3 per cent of The Empire Life Insurance Company.

Guardian Assurance was represented in-house by Stuart Brown, General Counsel, and Oli Cooper, Head of Legal, and also by Amanda Linett, Paul Rakowski and Brandon Hoffman (M&A), and Stuart Carruthers (insurance) of Stikeman Elliott LLP.

E-L Financial was represented in-house by Richard Carty, VP General Counsel, and ELFS and Empire Life were represented in-house by Natalie Ochrym, General Counsel & Senior Vice-President, Human Resources and Corporate Services, and by Andrew Parker and Barry Ryan (business law) of McCarthy Tétrault LLP.