Four investment banks and a specialist UK mergers and acquisitions boutique are due bumper paydays after Phoenix Group, a UK-based consolidator of closed insurance funds, announced it will acquire rival ReAssure Group from its owner Swiss Re.

Phoenix will pay £3.25bn in cash and shares for ReAssure, the companies announced on December 6, in a deal that will lift Phoenix’s total group assets by £84bn to £329bn, and make it the largest consolidator of closed life-insurance funds in Europe, it said.