Shareholder and former chairman will not divest a large portion of his shares in IPO

Neil Utley, Hastings chairman and ex-IAG UK chief executive

Former Hastings chairman Utley has said he will remain a “keen supporter” of the company despite not having a position on the new group board.

He also said he will not make a big divestment of his shareholding when the company floats on the London Stock Exchange in October.

Hastings announced plans for its long-awaited initial public offering this morning, and also revealed a new group board. The new board includes two representatives from the insurance and broking group’s founding shareholders: Former Hastings Direct chief executive Ed Fitzmaurice and Richard Brewster, who was part of the company’s 2009 management buyout (MBO) from Australian insurer IAG.

Utley became non-executive chairman of Hastings following the 2009 MBO. He is currently listed as a director of Hastings Insurance Group and non-executive director of the group’s broking division, Hastings Insurance Services.

Utley told Insurance Times: “I’m still a very keen supporter of the company and I will continue to be that.”

He also said he will not be selling a large part of his Hastings shareholding. In the IPO, Hastings’s exiting shareholders, including majority shareholder Goldman Sachs, will collectively sell at least 25% of their shares.

Utley said: “We’ll all reduce [our holdings] a little bit, but I have got no plans to divest in any big way at all.”

He added: “I am very excited about the business being in the position that it is and being able to float. It is a six-year drive that we have been going through and I’m very proud now that we are where we are.”

Hastings’s new board

NameAgePosition
Michael Fairey 67 Chairman
Gary Hoffman 54 Chief executive officer
Richard Hoskins 51 Chief financial officer
Richard Brewster 59 Non-executive director
Thomas Colraine 57 Senior independent director
Ian Cormack 67 Independent non-executive director
Edward Fitzmaurice 52 Non-executive director
Pierre Lefèvre 59 Independent non-executive director
Malcolm Le May 57 Independent Non-executive director
Sumit Rajpal 40 Non-executive director
Michele Titi-Cappelli 39 Non-executive director