Briefing: Does Ageas’ purchase of Esure make up for it losing out on DLG?

Ageas has made no secret of its plans to expand in the personal lines market, with UK chief executive Ant Middle having told Insurance Times that it plans to “become one of the top three players” in this area.

Middle said the insurer would do this by “leveraging and focusing on organic growth”, but there is no doubt that the firm has acquisitions very much on its radar.

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

And more recently, in April 2025, the insurer reached an agreement to acquire motor and home insurance provider Esure for £1.3bn.

Ageas said the deal, which it announced on 14 April 2025, would help it achieve a balanced and diversified distribution model, spanning direct price comparison websites (PCW), brokers and partnerships.

DLG bid

These deals come following Ageas announcing in 2021 that its UK arm would undertake a four-year strategy to hone its craft as a solely personal lines, intermediated business.

And the insurer’s big ambitions for this market first became clear in 2024, with the firm making a bold swoop for Direct Line Group (DLG).

Ageas announced a possible £3.1bn bid for DLG in February of that year, before improving its offer terms the following month.

However, after both proposals were rejected by DLG, Ageas confirmed it had completely walked away from any deal, with the firm “not able to identify additional elements based on publicly available information that would justify significant adjustments to the terms of its possible offer”.

In a blow to Ageas, DLG accepted a takeover offer from Aviva in December 2024. At the time, the insurer stated that “the acquisition would expand its presence in the attractive UK personal lines market, building on its existing strength and creating a more efficient platform from which to serve existing and new customers”.

Such a deal certainly caught the attention of the UKGI industry – it will undoubtedly create a very large force in the personal lines market.

Coming out swinging

However, while this move would have been a gut punch for Ageas at the time, the insurer has come out swinging by announcing deals with Saga and Esure.

In its announcement of the Esure deal, Ageas said acquiring the firm would widen its target customer demographics and enable top line growth of £3.25bn by 2028.

So, some big targets – like there would have been for DLG – and I recently asked Middle if this purchase made up for not securing DLG.

In response, he said: “If you think about the strategic profile that we have wanted to develop into and add to our business, Esure has got all of those strengths – that is the most important thing.

“We want to develop in personal lines, we want to add to the capabilities of the business and [I am] really happy that we’ve been able to strike the deal with Esure.”

It looks like is Ageas is not fazed by missing out on DLG and believes it can grow just as strongly without the insurer.

And with both the Ageas-Esure and Aviva-DLG deals expected to complete later this year, the competition for market share is certainly going to be interesting to watch.