LONDON, March 29 (Reuters) - Insurance company EquitableLife's [EQL.UL] solvency improved by over 30 percent in 2006 asit cut its risk profile, but it said a deal for the remainingbulk of its with-profits business was not imminent.

Britain's oldest mutual insurer, closed to new businessafter it almost collapsed in 2000, agreed last year to transfermost of its non-profit pension annuities to Canada Life(CL_pb.TO: Quote, Profile , Research), reducing the longevity risk attached to thatbusiness.

Earlier this month, Equitable announced a deal to transfer a1.8 billion pound ($3.5 billion) with-profits annuity portfolioto insurer Prudential (PRU.L: Quote, Profile , Research). That deal is set to be completedthis year.

But Equitable, which said it received "a number" ofexpressions of interest in the portfolio transferred to the Pru,said a deal for the remaining 7 billion to 8 billion poundswith-profits book of business would not come this year.

"We have a transaction to work on and to establish. To haveanother transaction running at the same time would be complexand inappropriate," Equitable Chief Executive Charles Thomsonsaid in an interview. "We talk to a variety of people from timeto time, but for the rest of this year, our focus is on thePrudential transaction."

Equitable said excess realistic assets -- a key measure offinancial solvency -- increased to 884 million pounds in 2006from 669 million in 2005, representing 9.4 percent of thewith-profits fund against 6.6 percent the year before.

"The society is now stronger and more stable than it hasbeen for many years," Thomson said. "The continued improvementin our financial position has reduced the risks that membersface and has allowed us to enhance the bonus that wouldotherwise have been payable."

The interim bonus for 2007 on with-profits policies will beat the rate of up to 5 percent per year, the insurer said,against 3.5 percent last year.

Regulatory restrictions have kept Equitable's with-profitfund heavily invested in fixed income assets, with only a smallproportion invested in equity or property assets, where returnsin 2006 have been higher.

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