Run-off buyer pays £4.3m for £5.1m of net assets

Run-off buyout specialist Randall & Quilter (R&Q) has bought UK-based run-off insurer Principle for £4.275m

Principle, which entered run-off in  October 2009, wrote almost exclusively Takaful motor insurance – motor insurance that complies with Islamic Sharia law.

It had net reserves of £2.8m as of 30 June 2011 and a net asset value of £5.1m as of 31 December 2010 – the date of the latest available audited accounts.

R&Q will fund the acquisition from existing resources. R&Q Insurance Services will manage the run-off.

“We are pleased to have reached agreement to acquire Principle and it demonstrates our commitment to find new legacy portfolios which meet our return criteria and have shorter anticipated run-off profiles,” said R&Q chief executive Ken Randall in a statement. “We have commented that our pipeline has grown in recent times and it is pleasing to report that this heightened activity has now resulted in a run-off company purchase, subject to regulatory approval, expected to be received in the coming months.”