Cigna closed the sale of its group life and disability insurance unit to New York Life Insurance for $6.3 billion, the companies announced Thursday.
Cigna is using the proceeds to pay down debt from its $67 billion purchase of pharmacy benefit manager Express Scripts more than a year ago. Cigna CEO David Cordani has said the insurer wants to focus on its healthcare offerings, specifically Medicare Advantage.
The acquisition of Cigna's group life, accident, and disability insurance business, first announced a year ago, adds about 3,000 employees and more than nine million customers to New York Life's "portfolio of strategic businesses," the companies said.
With the sale, Cigna is following in the footsteps of Aetna, which shed its group life and disability business in 2017 to focus on its core health insurance products. Mutual life insurer New York Life, meanwhile, will benefit from the addition of millions of new members.
The group disability and life business was one of Cigna's smallest segments, accounting for about 8% of its income from operations in 2018. The unit reported total revenue of $5.1 billion and income from operations of $523 million that year. It covered 14.8 million people.
Across all its segments, Cigna reported revenue of $153.6 billion in 2019.
