Sun Life and Provincial Holdings (SLPH), the UK arm of the French insurer Axa, which has bought GRE, has indicated clearly that the Irish GRE/PMPA general insurance operation will remain as an independent subsidiary and not be sold.

While a review of the Irish operation is under way, the group chief executive, Mr Mark Wood, said they expected the Irish company to remain as an independent part of the group.

GRE/PMPA is the market leader in the general insurance sector here. It also has a small life operation, specialising in term assurance, and Mr Wood indicated that the group would be looking at ways to "maximise the performance". SLPH is to cut 2,000 general insurance jobs in the UK after acquiring Guardian Royal Exchange. However, no job losses are anticipated in Ireland. SLPH yesterday declared its offer, which values the group at £3.4 billion sterling, unconditional after having received acceptances for 92 per cent of the equity.