Ex-Tesco boss to take over at John Lewis
ADMIRAL has completed the acquisition of the direct home and pet insurance lines of RSA Insurance Group in a deal that could be worth up to £115m.
The car-insurance-to-loans group, which is Wales’ only FSTE 100 company and has a workforce in south Wales of more than 7,000, has paid £82.5m in a deal which also provides provision for a further payment of up to £32.5m dependent on the number of policies successfully migrated to Admiral.
The acquisition for renewal rights of the More Than brand, first announced lat December, sees the transfer of 300 RSA staff to Admiral, but does not include liabilities relating to existing policies, which will remain with RSA. Policies will start renewing from Q3 this year.
The acquisition is closely aligned to Admiral’s strategy to diversify its product offering and build multiproduct customer relationships in its core markets.
Milena Mondini de Focatiis, chief executive of Admiral Group, said: “We are accelerating our diversification strategy as well as enhancing our existing capabilities in risk selection and claims management to help even more people to look after their future.
“Our leadership team have enjoyed visiting our new colleagues at RSA
Editor SION BARRY 029 2024 3749 and I am looking forward to personally welcoming them to our Admiral family.”
Ken Norgrove, chief executive of RSA UK&I, said: “More Than has been an important part of the RSA family for 23 years and I’m confident our colleagues will be warmly welcomed at Admiral and looked after for many years to come.
“I would like to thank our people for all they have done for our customers and business, and I don’t doubt that they will become great assets to Admiral in the future.”
For its 2023 financial year Admiral saw revenues climb 31% last year on 2022 to £4.81bn with pre-tax profits up 23% to £442.8m.
The results meant that 10,000 staff at Admiral, which also has car insurance businesses in France, Italy, Spain and the US, will receive the maximum award, which has consistently been paid since the company floated on the London Stock Exchange, under its share performance scheme.
During the year Admiral grew its customer base by more than 500,000 to 9.7 million, of which 7.39 million were UK insurance – mainly vehicle – related.
Its Admiral Money business grew 8% to nearly £1bn, which saw it contributing £10m to group profits. Its UK household insurance operation posted profits of £8m following losses of £11m a year earlier. Its US car insurance business remains loss-making. walesonline.co.uk/business
FORMER Tesco UK boss Jason Tarry is set to take over as the next chairman of the John Lewis Partnership.
It comes after Dame Sharon White confirmed she will step down at the end of her term at the employee-owned firm, which runs the department store chain and Waitrose supermarket business.
Mr Tarry, who was most recently UK & Ireland chief executive at Tesco for six years, will take over the leadership role in September.
The appointment comes amid a key period for the historic retailer, as it continues to undergo a major turnaround programme which has already seen store closures, job cuts and expansion into new business areas such as housing.
The experienced retail boss will become only the seventh person to lead the business.
Rita Clifton, chairwoman of the nomination committee, said: “The board extends its huge thanks to Sharon for successfully leading the partnership through one of the most testing periods in its history.”