Former Tory treasurer toasts £210m payday from Singapore deal

The ICAP founder Lord Spencer will receive a £210m bonanza from the takeover of SingLife by Japan’s Sumitomo Life Insurance, Sky News understands.

Lord Spencer, the former Conservative Party treasurer, is toasting a £210m festive payday from the takeover of a Singaporean financial services group he helped to fund.

Sky News understands the ICAP founder, who was ennobled in 2020, will receive the bonanza after Singapore Life Holdings agreed to be acquired by Japan’s Sumitomo Life Insurance.

Lord Spencer provided the capital to establish what was the Asian city state’s first online life insurance venture.

In total, he is said to have invested £60m into the SingLife business, meaning he has generated three-and-a-half times his money in only five years.

The Tory peer helped to engineer the purchase of Aviva’s Singaporean life business in 2021, and is said to have played a leading role in the negotiations with Sumitomo.

Through his private investment vehicle IPGL, Lord Spencer has amassed stakes in a diverse array of businesses, ranging from The Tote to Elvie, a manufacturer of silent breast-pumps.

IPGL also holds shares in Chapel Down, the AIM-listed English sparkling wine producer.

One of the most successful financial services entrepreneurs of his generation, Lord Spencer’s peerage was held up by the furore around the Libor rate-rigging scandal – although he was not personally implicated in any wrongdoing.

He was a big donor to Boris Johnson’s successful Tory leadership campaign, and chairs the Centre for Policy Studies, Thatcherite thinktank.

A spokesman for Lord Spencer declined to comment.