Sun Life Financial Services of Canada Inc. announced Friday that it has completed the sale of its U.K. group insurance business to Unum Ltd., a U.K. subsidiary of UnumProvident Corp.

Sun Life Financial first disclosed the deal with Unum on January 13. Terms of the transaction have not been disclosed.

Sun Life says proceeds of the transaction will be used for general corporate purposes and the insurer expects the impact of the transaction on operating earnings per share to be neutral in 2003.

Sun Life Financial’s U.K. group insurance business is based in Basingstoke and is among the top providers of both group life and group income protection in the U.K. The business has about 4,800 plans in force covering approximately 1 million members.