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Annuity provider JRP sales drop 4 percent in March quarter

LONDON (Reuters) - Specialist annuity provider JRP Group's (JRP.L) total new business sales fell 4 percent in the three months to March to 387 million pounds, hit by a drop in bulk annuity deals but above analysts' expectations.

Just Retirement and Partnership Assurance combined to form JRP Group in April. The two firms specialise in providing annuities for pensioners with medical conditions that can affect their life expectancy.

Pensions reforms introduced in Britain last year have removed the obligation for over-55s to use their pension pots to buy an annuity, which provides a fixed income for life, denting the sale of individual annuities.

The firms have increased their focus on bulk annuities - insuring defined benefit, or final salary pension schemes.

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Just Retirement saw sales of 1.46 billion pounds for the first nine months of its trading year to end-June, and sales of 227 million pounds for the March quarter.

Partnership Assurance's sales were 161 million pounds in the March quarter.

Analysts at KBW and Panmure Gordon had forecast total new business sales on the quarter for the combined JRP Group of 323 million pounds and 342 million pounds respectively.

The merger would provide cost synergies of at least 40 million pounds, JRP Group chief executive Rodney Cook said in a statement.

(The story was refiled to correct Reuters Instrument Code JRP.L, in first paragraph)

(Reporting by Carolyn Cohn; Editing by Rachel Armstrong)