8. Alexander Forbes UK

8. Alexander Forbes UK
Fee and commission income (2001): £140.5m

Pre-tax profit (2001): £17.1m

Address: 1 Seething Lane
London
EC3N 4NH
Tel: 020 7488 1388
Fax: 020 7488 5111

Email: info@aforbes.co.uk

Website: www.alexanderforbes.com

History: In 1893, Price Forbes was formed in the UK, expanded to South Africa in 1935 and was incorporated there in 1958 as Price Forbes Sedgwick. The business has developed a dominant position in the insurance broking and employee benefits industries in South Africa.

In 1995, Alexander Forbes acquired an initial 3.3% shareholding in Nelson Hurst, an international insurance and reinsurance broker with headquarters in London and a network of offices in the UK, Asia Pacific and Latin America. By 1997, Alexander Forbes had increased this holding to 100%.

An 80% shareholding in Media Insurance Services was acquired in 1998. This UK-based business markets products through a variety of distribution channels, particularly daily newspapers.

In April 2000, the entire issued share capital of employee benefit and financial planning specialist group, Johnstone Douglas (JD), was acquired. JD had a strong presence in the small to medium-sized commercial end of the UK employee benefits market. As part of this acquisition, a 75% share in CTC, a specialist provider of software systems and third-party administration services to the financial services industry, was also acquired.

September 2000 saw two significant acquisitions. First, some of Bradstock Group's retail and specialist insurance broking operations were acquired, providing strong niche positions in insolvency, professional indemnity and specialist event insurance. Second, just weeks after the Bradstock acquisition, Alexander Forbes took a 20% stake in National Britannia Group, a leading provider of solutions to companies' safety, health and environmental risk management issues. Through this new business partnership, Alexander Forbes believes it is able to offer a spectrum of risk products that is broader than that of any of its competitors in the UK.

In March 2001, Alexander Forbes acquired Alfred Blackmore, a leading UK insurance intermediary that specialises in providing professional indemnity insurance. Together, the combined Alfred Blackmore and Alexander Forbes businesses have created a market-leading professional indemnity insurance provider, as well as strengthening their financial services and other niche insurance businesses.

These acquisitions are in line with Alexander Forbes's stated strategy of expanding its presence in the UK and acquiring complementary financial services and risk services businesses outside of its domestic South African market, together with increasing the proportion of the group's non-South African revenue.

Following the above acquisitions, in April 2001, the principal business entities were reorganised. The principal business entities in the UK and Europe are now retail, global broking services, financial services, speciality/professions, media insurance services and National Britannia (20%).

Chief officer: John Percy-Davis

Biography: Percy-Davis has over 25 years' experience in international insurance broking. Before joining the group and its predecessor companies, he spent 12 years with CE Heath. Having joined the group in 1987, he was appointed to the board of Alexander Forbes in 1996 and is the executive chairman of Alexander Forbes UK.

Major shareholders: Standard Bank Nominees Tvl (Pty); CMB Nominees (Pty)

Risk services activities include: Corporate insurance broking; reinsurance broking; risk management and risk finance consulting; cell captive insurance facilities; claims management; specialist aviation, marine, professional indemnity, political and credit risk and transportation risk services; and insurance products and services for the individual.

More than 5,700 personnel, based in 28 countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Europe, deliver financial and risk services to small, medium-sized and large organisations, and to individual clients.

Special schemes: The company operates a number of specialist schemes for client groups such as solicitors, trustees and other professions; insolvency practitioners; event organisers; professional sportspeople; property developers and classic car owners.

Number of UK branches: 19

Number of employees (average for 2001): 1,560 approx

Greatest technological advance: CTC is a specialist provider of software systems and third-party administration services to the financial services industry.

Its greatest recent technological advance has been applying the full power of the internet to the benefit of pension schemes and pension scheme members through its e-stakeholder system. This was reflected in CTC's nomination for Systems Provider of the Year in the UK Pensions Awards 2001.

E-stakeholder is the first of a brand new breed of fully web-centred software systems which are not built from a series of legacy components but are designed to harness the full power of the internet.

Uniquely, the CTC system enables the management of administration and information online, and allows members (and prospective members), employers, consultants and administrators access to the same data - tailored to each individual's viewpoint.

CTC is in advanced negotiations with a number of key players who are evaluating its approach. The e-stakeholder system already has four major purchasers, including AIG Life and Royal & SunAlliance, and will be bringing tangible communication and administration benefits to hundreds of company pension schemes and tens of thousands of pension scheme members.