Kwik-Fit sells insurance arm

THE French owners of car repairs chain Kwik-Fit have agreed to sell its insurance broking arm in a £215m deal, it was announced today.

Private equity group PAI Partners is selling Kwik-Fit Insurance Services (KFIS) - which has around 600,000 customers with policies across lines including home, car and travel insurance - to the UK division of Belgian insurer Ageas.

Ageas said the deal would consolidate its position as the fourth largest personal insurance broker in the UK, with 1.6m customers.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The sale of the insurance arm comes after PAI - which bought Kwik-Fit for 800m in 2005 - pumped 20m into the business earlier this year to avoid breaching banking covenants.

Proceeds from the insurance disposal will be put towards cutting Kwik-Fit's net debts, which stood at 811m at the end of last year.

KFIS, which was launched in 1995, has around 1,000 staff and sells insurance under the Kwik-Fit brand, as well as through the Green Insurance Company and Express Insurance names.

Ageas is the company left from the remains of the former banking and insurance giant Fortis, which joined with part-nationalised Royal Bank of Scotland in a disastrous consortium bid for ABN Amro in 2007 and was eventually broken up following the financial crisis.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The insurer, which will still trade under the Fortis name in the UK until next year, also struck a partnership deal with Tesco Bank last year to handle its handle car and household insurance.

The company's UK chief executive Barry Smith said: "This is a great acquisition for our company. It further reinforces our retail capability by adding a respected business and their powerful brands to our portfolio.

"The purchase of Kwik-Fit is part of Ageas' strategy in the UK to increase the breadth and depth of our product offering."