LONDON, July 30 (Reuters) - British life insurer Legal & General LGEN.L said on Thursday it was in exclusive negotiations to sell its French insurance unit to French insurer APICIL Prevoyance for an undisclosed sum.
L&G's French savings and protection business wrote around 600 million euros in premiums last year.
"We have an increasingly focused strategy and our French business is no longer a core operation for us," Mark Gregory, chief financial officer at L&G, said in a statement.
French newspaper "Les Echos" said last month that L&G was seeking buyers for the unit at a price of at least 150 million euros ($163.77 million). An L&G spokesman declined to comment.
L&G sold its Egyptian business to French insurer AXA AXAF.PA earlier this month for 763 million Egyptian pounds ($97.51 million). It sold its Irish-based offshore business to Canada Life earlier this year.
In addition to its main British and U.S. operations, which include global asset manager Legal & General Investment Management, L&G has an insurance business in the Netherlands and a joint venture in India.
L&G reports half-year results next week. ($1 = 7.8250 Egyptian pounds) ($1 = 0.9159 euros)