Car insurer Admiral to float
ADMIRAL Group is planning an initial public offering in London this autumn, the British car insurance specialist said, after reporting a jump in full-year profits of nearly a third.
The company was confirming an earlier Reuters report on its plans to list. A source familiar with the IPO said Admiral was likely to be valued at around £600m.
Admiral said its trading profits were up by 29% to £71.2m in the year to 31 December. Premium income grew 12% to £372m.
Admiral, which employs over 1,500 people, is owned by Barclays Private Equity - a unit of Barclays Bank - German insurance giant Munich Re and its management and employees, who received £2.5m for the year through staff profit share schemes.
The firm, which recently used five-times Olympic rowing gold medallist Sir Steve Redgrave in its advertising, was launched in 1993.
It specialises in providing insurance to people paying higher premiums, such as those living in cities, younger drivers and those with high-performance cars.
Group Chief Executive Henry Engelhardt said Admiral was arguably the most profitable insurer in the UK car insurance market.
Its results were driven by growth in its internet business, with over half of its sales now originating online. A number of UK insurance related firms have come to market since Benfield became the first significant European IPO, after a near two-year drought, when it listed last June.
Since then Catlin, along with Bermuda-based Alea and Aspen, have listed with varying degrees of success.
Non-life insurance has been buoyant over the past two years, with rising prices and low losses. However, analysts predict the highly competitive UK motor insurance market will struggle to be profitable in the next year or two as jockeying for market share has caused premiums to fall.
Lexicon Partners, the financial services boutique, has been hired as an advisor. Banks who have been talking to the firm include UBS, Merrill Lynch, Citigroup and HSBC, sources said.
