Ageas has agreed to acquire British insurer Esure for £1.3 billion, in a move that will make the Belgian company the third-largest provider of home and motor insurance in the UK.
The transaction, worth precisely £1.295 billion, will see Ageas purchase Esure from private equity owner Bain Capital, which has controlled the business since 2018.
The deal marks a significant step forward for Ageas’s ambitions to expand its footprint in the UK insurance market. Shares in Ageas rose as much as 3.1% in early Brussels trading.
Last year, the Belgian group attempted to buy Direct Line, but its bid was unsuccessful. Direct Line is now set to be acquired by Aviva, the UK’s largest insurer, in a £3.7 billion deal.
Ageas’s purchase of Esure, alongside its planned acquisition of the personal lines business of Saga in 2025, signals a clear intent to grow its position in the highly competitive personal insurance market.
Esure, which operates the Sheilas’ Wheels and First Alternative brands, has carved out a strong presence through partnerships with brokers and by leveraging price comparison websites to reach customers.
Established in 2000 by Sir Peter Wood — who also founded Direct Line — Esure set out to offer competitive policies by making use of online channels. The approach has paid dividends, particularly in the past year.
In 2024, Esure reported what it called a “pivotal year of transformation.” The insurer grew its policy count by nearly 3% to 2.1 million, while turnover rose 14% to £1.1 billion.
More notably, the company swung from a trading loss of £16.7 million in 2023 to a profit of £126 million, highlighting the effectiveness of its recent strategy.
The transaction, to be financed by a mix of cash, debt and equity, is expected to be finalised in the second half of 2025.
How will the deal benefit Ageas?
The integration of Ageas UK and esure set to be completed during Ageas’ current strategic cycle running through 2027.
“Entering the next strategic period, we project that the transaction will generate a full cost saving potential in excess of 100 million pounds per annum, before tax,” Ageas said.
It also expects the deal to yield an uplift of more than 1 percentage point to its return on equity, on a run-rate basis.
Analysts at JPMorgan said the transaction represents a sound move for Ageas, as it will not only increase its scale but also strengthen its distribution channels.
“The deal 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 & casualty revenues,” they said.
RSA Insurance to adopt Intact brand name
In a separate development, RSA Insurance announced it will change its trading name to Intact Insurance by the end of the year, aligning itself with its Canadian parent company, Intact Financial Corporation.
The RSA brand, which traces its origins back to 1710, has been a fixture in the British insurance sector for over three centuries.
Charles Brindamour, chief executive of Intact, said the rebranding was a natural progression following Intact’s acquisition of RSA in 2021.
“The transformation of the UK business since it was acquired by Intact has been exceptional,” he said. “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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