Belgian insurer buys Sheilas' Wheels owner Esure in £1.3bn deal
The Sheilas' Wheels owner, Esure, will be sold to the Belgian insurer Ageas in a £1.3bn deal that will create the UK's third-biggest home and motor insurer.
Ageas is buying the UK insurer from the private equity firm Bain Capital in a deal funded through a combination of surplus cash and debt or equity.
The Belgian firm had tried to expand its UK presence by bidding for the car insurer Direct Line twice last year, but was unsuccessful, and Direct Line is being taken over by the UK's biggest insurer Aviva in a £3.7bn deal instead.
Esure, which owns the esure, Sheilas' Wheels and First Alternative brands, sells insurance online through price-comparison websites and broker partnerships. It has been owned by Bain Capital since 2018.
Esure and Direct Line were founded by the British entrepreneur Sir Peter Wood, who pioneered directly selling insurance over the telephone in 1985 with the launch of Direct Line.
Esure was set up in 2000 'to offer competitive insurance by harnessing the power of the internet', it says on its website.
David McMillan, Esure's chief executive, said: 'This transaction brings together two highly complementary businesses … We look forward to working alongside the Ageas team to build the UK's leading personal lines insurer.'
Esure hailed a 'pivotal year with transformation' in 2024, when it increased policies by nearly 3% to 2.1m and raised turnover by 14% to £1.1bn. It swung from a loss of £16.7m in 2023 to a trading profit of £126m.
Ageas' UK chief executive, Ant Middle, said: 'Esure is a significant addition to the Ageas UK business and aligns perfectly with our growth strategy. As demand for motor and home insurance grows, Ageas will be perfectly positioned to gain market share.'
Analysts at JP Morgan reckon this is as good deal said the deal was good for Ageas. '[It] will substantially increase Ageas's scale in the UK personal lines market, taking into account Ageas's deal to acquire the personal lines business of Saga in 2025.
'It will also accelerate Ageas's position in the important price-comparison website channel. The deal will more than double Ageas's UK property and casualty revenues.'
News of the acquisition comes as UK regulators are investigating the high cost of car insurance. After years of hefty price rises, premiums levelled off last year and have been falling in recent months, according to the price-comparison website Confused.com.
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Elsewhere, the RSA Insurance name will disappear, as the 315-year-old company announced plans to adopt the trading name Intact Insurance by the end of this year, to align with its Canadian parent company, Intact Financial Corporation (IFC).
RSA, founded as the Sun Fire Office in 1710, was acquired by Intact in 2021.
Charles Brindamour, the chief executive of IFC, said: 'The transformation of the UK business since it was acquired by Intact in 2021 has been exceptional. Intact has a global footprint with big aspirations for the future and RSA is already a significant contributor.
'Aligning under the Intact brand is a natural next step in our strategy to strengthen our leading position in the UK, Europe and Ireland.'
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