2nd UPDATE: QBE Buys Renewal Rights Of Brit Insurance UK Regional Operations
April 04 2012 - 1:39AM
Dow Jones News
QBE Insurance Group Ltd (QBE.AU) has bought the renewal rights
of Brit Insurance's regional operations, which could give
Australia's largest insurer an estimated 5% of the U.K. market
share from next year.
Almost 130 staff from Brit's underwriting team will transfer to
QBE as part of the merger, which will create an entity with an
ongoing gross premium of more than GBP500 million spread across 10
U.K. locations.
Buying the renewal rights from an insurer is a means of taking
over clients when they renew their insurance policies without
assuming any liabilities or capital from the acquisition.
QBE's incoming chief executive, John Neal, forecast at the
insurer's annual general meeting on Wednesday the company's gross
written premium will rise to US$800 million by next year,
equivalent to around 5% of the U.K. market.
And he said the insurer would continue to grow through its
strategy of bolt-on acquisitions--deals that add no more than
$US400 million of premium income--this year thanks to its improving
balance sheet, with several small potential targets already "in its
line of sight."
"We waited three, four years for Brit Insurance," he told
journalists at the meeting. "We're waiting for the right time."
"It looks like they got it for a decent price, it's beefing up
an area where they already have an exposure which is positive,"
Tyndall Investment Management investment analyst Jason Kim told Dow
Jones Newswires, citing analyst notes which implied a price range
of between GBP25 million and GBP50 million.
"They have de-risked the acquisition so their only exposure is
the business written going forward, meaning no exposure to
historical or legacy business going forward, which is a good way to
do things."
QBE had a disastrous year in 2011 after a record number of
catastrophes worldwide saw its net profit plummet 45% from a year
earlier to US$704 million.
But departing Chief Executive Frank O'Halloran, who will step
down in August, said the company had seen a "superb" first quarter,
with large risk and catastrophe claims over the three months
expected to be US$700 million lower than a year earlier.
QBE reiterated its recent guidance of a 2012 insurance profit
margin of 13%, but it added that premium rate increases this year
have so far exceeded its expectations, with overall average
increases of 5%.
It also said credit spreads have reduced since December and it
had recouped all related unrealized losses booked in 2011.
QBE has already made three other acquisitions so far this year,
including the general insurance businesses of HSBC Argentina
Holdings and Hang Seng Bank, both subsidiaries of HSBC Holdings,
for US$420 million, and Puerto Rican underwriting business Optima
Insurance Group in a deal completed in February.
Neal said the bolt-ons would "ensure we meet our premium growth
expectations in 2012". In total, the four acquisitions are expected
to produce annualized gross written premium of around US$880
million help boost earnings per share for the full year, according
to QBE.
-By Caroline Henshaw, Dow Jones Newswires; 61-2-8272-4689;
caroline.henshaw@dowjones.com
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