RSA Insurance boss Stephen Hester rounded off a busy week today by selling the insurer’s Baltic and Polish operations.
The deals in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland are worth a combined £300 million and will help boost RSA’s capital after a disastrous 2013, which was marked by problems in its Irish business and bad weather claims.
Poland’s largest insurer, Powszechny Zaklad Ubezpieczeñ sa, has agreed to buy all four businesses. Hester said the group would now focus on the UK & Ireland, Scandinavia, Canada and Latin America.
Since joining in February, Hester has completed a £775 million rights issue, scrapped the company’s dividend and this week promoted Paul Whittaker from head of its emerging markets business to chief operating officer.
Yesterday, Adrian Brown, who runs the insurer’s UK and Western European business, also quit to join insurance broker Arthur J Gallagher.
