Middle stresses that Ageas UK’s commitment to brokers is ‘undiminished’ after deals

Ageas UK chief executive Ant Middle has stressed that his firm’s commitment to brokers is “undiminished” following multiple acquisitions being made.

In December 2024, Ageas UK confirmed that its 20-year partnership with specialist insurer Saga – including the acquisition of underwriting business Acromas Insurance Company (AICL) – had been formally agreed by both parties.

Then, in September 2025, the insurer completed its acquisition of Esure after agreeing to purchase the insurer from Bain Capital in April 2025.

Middle said the moves had been made as his firm looks to create a “market leading personal lines insurer in the UK” and stressed that a large chunk of business will still be delivered through brokers.

“There’s a lot to do in the business,” he told Insurance Times.

“We do need to strike the right balance between continuing to run a really effective business day-to-day and preparing and delivering a really efficient and carefully managed integration. Both are equally important.

“We need to keep our eye on the market and our distribution partners to make sure we continue to do the things that are so important to us and, in particular, making sure that we’re really clear that our commitment to brokers is undiminished.

“50% of our business is still going to be delivered through our brokers partners.”

New appointment

After Ageas UK completed its acquisition of Esure, it announced a new executive team in order to build a unified business.

Among the moves include Adam Beckett taking up the role of managing director for broker and partnerships.

“We’ve created a dedicated business unit under Beckett to make sure we continue to be responsive, focused and aligned to what brokers need from us,” Middle said.

“We’ve structured ourselves to make sure that it remains our trading rhythm.”

Growth plans

Ageas UK’s growth in personal lines in 2025 marks the insurer’s second stage of evolution, with the first foray of transformation having kicked off in April 2021.

Back then, Ageas UK undertook a four-year strategy to hone its craft as a solely personal lines, intermediated business shortly after Middle took up the reins of the UK arm in June 2020 from Andy Watson.

Ageas UK has gone onto win the Personal Lines Insurer of the Year accolade for the past two years at the annual Insurance Times Awards in December.

Middle said: “We’ve set out our ambition to create a top three personal lines insurer and we’re now in a position to do that, which is wonderful.

“We have got brilliant competitors, which is what I love about this market. [There] is really strong competition and Aviva coming together with Direct Line and everybody else that’s operating in our market, they’ve all got their strengths.

“We just simply want to be a competitive business in a very strong field and we aspire to be amongst the very best in our market.”