Quinn’s UK losses reversed

Quinn Insurance administrator Michael McAteer says losses in the UK are reversible and in recent weeks the UK business has started to move into the black on a week-to- week basis, the Irish Independent reports.

The business overall is only down by "single digits" when measured against the same time last year, probably by between 8% and 9%.

Commercial insurance

Richard Stafford, head of commercial insurance says in Ireland SMEs remain the mainstay. A large retailer recently came on board but the company is not trying to grow the business by targeting multinationals.

"Our commercial book has held up well despite the administration," he says. New business is down, but existing business has not disappeared. "There has been no run on the book," he comments.

Valuation

McAteer is not including non-traditional assets owned by Quinn Insurance, through various subsidiaries, in its price calculations. These include a windfarm at Derrylin, Co Fermanagh, a hotel in the Czech Republic and a landfill site in Armagh.

"We have taken the view that an interested insurer would not classify them as general insurance assets, it's not what a traditional insurer tends to do, so in our head we have taken them out of the balance sheet,'' he explains.

"We've built a sustainable business, someone else might want to take it further, but they'll have the capital to do it, that's what we don't have,'' admits McAteer.

In a separate article the Irish Independent tries to value Quinn Insurance at as much as €1.5bn. “Allianz and Axa are trading at 6.5 and 9.2 times their respective profits. At the lower end, this would have left pre-crisis Quinn Insurance worth something like an eye-watering €1.5bn,” the paper writes.