Another insurance merger!

[Buckman]

Not sure if it will be good or bad for the consumer. A £3.6bn deal to create one of Britain’s biggest car insurers has raised fears of higher prices.
Direct Line said on Friday it had agreed a provisional 275p a share takeover offer from larger rival Aviva. The takeover would give Aviva a car insurance market share of more than 20pc – according to figures from Confused.com –overtaking Admiral, the UK’s biggest motor insurer. Direct Line and Aviva are the second and third biggest motor insurers in the UK respectively.

 

[RogerL]

Direct Line owns several other brands like Churchill, Privilege and Green Flag - I wonder if they're included?

Aviva is a rebrand of the old Norwich Union.

 

[otherclive]

Direct Line owns several other brands like Churchill, Privilege and Green Flag - I wonder if they're included?

Aviva is a rebrand of the old Norwich Union.

Oh no not NU. had awful treatment from them when my wife’s Saab 9000 was written off. We eventually agreed a reasonable settlement via extensive use of the internet to demonstrate the range of prices for buying a replacement. They even stated that the Saab wasn’t MoT and therefore outwith the policy conditions.

 

[Niall_McIntosh]

Direct Line owns several other brands like Churchill, Privilege and Green Flag - I wonder if they're included?

Aviva is a rebrand of the old Norwich Union.

Aviva was the name chosen in 2002 for the rebrand of CGNU, which was the product of the merger of Commercial Union and General Accident, in 1998, followed by the addition of Norwich Union in 2000.

 

[Dustydog]

Not a merger but a buy out by Aviva. The deal is subject to approval by The Competition and Markets Authority. Probably a tick box job.

Sadly I expect there will be redundancies. There’s still plenty of room for niche Insurers to compete.

A better result than what happened a couple of years ago to RSA. ( includes More Than) Sold to a foreign company who no longer underwrite motor insurance in the UK.

 

[Buckman]

Very soon we will have only one insurance company to choose from although it will be disguised under many sub names?

 

[Dustydog]

Very soon we will have only one insurance company to choose from although it will be disguised under many sub names?

I think you can relax on that one bar one exception. If the current HMG decide to Nationalise the Insurance Industry🙀

Badge engineering has been around for decades, BMC had Austin MG Morris Wolseley etc as indeed VAG have VW,Audi Skoda Seat .The Insurers first big merger /takeover was 1969 Commercial Union and the Northern. Each of these were also made up of at ten other insurers.

 

[RogerL]

I think you can relax on that one bar one exception. If the current HMG decide to Nationalise the Insurance Industry🙀

Badge engineering has been around for decades, BMC had Austin MG Morris Wolseley etc as indeed VAG have VW,Audi Skoda Seat .The Insurers first big merger /takeover was 1969 Commercial Union and the Northern. Each of these were also made up of at ten other insurers.

A lot of insurance is re-insured at Lloyds - but that itself is about 80 syndicates so the risk of the insurance industry becoming a monopoly is small.

 

[Buckman]

I think you can relax on that one bar one exception. If the current HMG decide to Nationalise the Insurance Industry🙀

Badge engineering has been around for decades, BMC had Austin MG Morris Wolseley etc as indeed VAG have VW,Audi Skoda Seat .The Insurers first big merger /takeover was 1969 Commercial Union and the Northern. Each of these were also made up of at ten other insurers.

Indeed that could be next on the list of things to do!

 

[Niall_McIntosh]

Not a merger but a buy out by Aviva. The deal is subject to approval by The Competition and Markets Authority. Probably a tick box job.

Sadly I expect there will be redundancies. There’s still plenty of room for niche Insurers to compete.

A better result than what happened a couple of years ago to RSA. ( includes More Than) Sold to a foreign company who no longer underwrite motor insurance in the UK.

I don't think that The City recognises "mergers" as such. I think, technically, one compay has to effectively take over the other. That's certainly what happened with the Royal Insurance and Sun Alliance "merger". In that case Sun Alliance took over Royal Insurance to form Royal SunAlliance, usually shortened to RSA.

 

[Niall_McIntosh]

Very soon we will have only one insurance company to choose from although it will be disguised under many sub names?

It's funny that you should say this. During the late 1990's when there was a rush of "consolidation" in the insurance market, the number of insurance companies dropped significantly. There was a joke going around the insurance market that, if the number of companies dropped too much further, the trade body (The Assosciation of British Insurers - ABI) would have to be renamed as The Association of Both Insurers......

 

[Niall_McIntosh]

A lot of insurance is re-insured at Lloyds - but that itself is about 80 syndicates so the risk of the insurance industry becoming a monopoly is small.

When I was working in the market, most of the bigger insurers had reinsurance programmes with the big European and American reinsurers, Allianz, Munich Re, Swiss Re and Berkshire Hathaway spring to mind.