Ageas builds over-50s with £52.8m buy

Ageas’s retail brokerage smashed through the £200m barrier following the acquisition of over-50s insurance broker Castle Cover.

The £52.8m acquisition would take Ageas UK Retail to ninth in Insurance Times’s top 50 brokers list if all its constituent businesses are combined.

The deal means Ageas has a healthy market share of the over-50s broking market.

Janet Connor will be managing director of both Castle Cover and Ageas’s other over-50s firm, RIAS.

Asked whether there was a risk of cannabilisation between RIAS and Castle Cover, Ageas UK chief executive Barry Smith said: “There may be an element of that, but it’s a big market out there, with a lot of customers.”

Despite the growing size of Ageas Retail, Smith vowed not to compromise on service.

He said: “The heart of our organisation is about making sure the customers sees that we provide good-quality service, and woe betide us if we don’t deliver to that mantra.”