‘Brexit bad boy’ to net millions from insurance float
UKIP donor Arron Banks is in line to make millions of pounds from the listing of an insurance firm that he says has been boosted by controversial technology used to help win the Brexit vote.
Banks said he is aiming to float Eldon Insurance in the New Year.
The insurance broking firm made £16.7 million in underlying profits in the first six months of the year, according to unpublished figures seen by The Mail on Sunday.
The businessman, one of the selfstyled ‘bad boys of Brexit’, says he is looking for a stock market flotation early next year as by that time the firm will have posted its latest full-year profits, expected to be £24 million or £25 million. Banks said: ‘That equates to an initial public offering of £ 250 million. But we’re growing very quickly too.’
He has a stake of about 90 per cent of Eldon, with staff and managers owning the remainder. Eldon owns the Go Skippy broking brand, and Banks has been underwriting the cover through a Gibraltar insurer that he owns. But he is planning to pass the underwriting on to major insurers from January 1 through a new insurance ‘ agent’ company called Somerset Bridge.
Banks said: ‘2018 and 2019 are going to be fantastic years in the motor insurance market, purely because it has seen losses in the past and rates have risen significantly.’
‘Everyone knows their car insurance premiums have gone through the roof. It goes in cycles and the current one is good for insurers,’ he said. He added that Eldon had also been using artificial intelligence experts he deployed in the Brexit campaign. Leave. eu used social media profiling to target swing voters, though it was alleged that this was provided under arrangements in breach of Electoral Commission rules. Banks said of the technology: ‘ It’s transforming the business. In 18 months we have halved our personal injury claim frequency, which is phenomenal. It’s all about risk selection. We are able to use the artificial intelligence to profile the people we want, and also the people we don’t want.’ Earlier this year Banks said: ‘Artificial intelligence won it for Leave.’