Boss leaves Brit months after takeover

Brit chief executive Dane Douetil is to stand down just six months after private equity firm Achilles bought the Lloyd’s insurer.

Douetil will be replaced by Mark Cloutier, who was previously chief executive of run-off reinsurer Alea and is an experienced hand at working with private equity.

Brit and Achilles were tight-lipped about Douetil’s departure, but sources suggested there may have been disagreement about the future direction of the company.

Brit’s profit was down 90% in the half-year to £6.4m on a combined ratio of 104.8%, although this was in the context of the Lloyd’s market’s worst-ever half-year results.

Under Douetil, Brit made a push for the UK regions, expanding gross written premium from £279.9m in 2006 to £441.2m last year, just under 30% of its £1.53bn book.

Although Brit scaled back on its personal lines motor last year and has been dogged by the soft market in commercial, it remained in line with its competitors, posting a UK combined ratio of 99.8%.

It remains to be seen whether Cloutier will continue to commit capital to the difficult UK market,
or use Brit’s international reach to deploy it elsewhere.

In other movements in the industry, former QBE Europe managing director, property, Bernard Mageean has joined Broker Network and Countrywide as director of insurer relations.

The role was created to help tie network members more closely to their insurer panel and increase the volume of business going through panel insurers, Mageean said.