Brokers shift £69m of business away from LV= ahead of Allianz switch

Brokers have moved £69m of commercial business away from LV= ahead of due renewals with Allianz.

Commercial lines premiums written by LV= were at around £230m according to annual results filed with Companies House for the end of 2017. Transfers to Allianz of policies due for renewal began in September 2018.

Allianz chief executive Jon Dye announced on Friday that the insurer was expecting to write £161m of the LV= commercial book by the end of 2019 – indicating brokers will have transferred £69m worth of LV= business elsewhere, rather than renew with Allianz.

However, Dye told Insurance Times the 70% conversion rate of the LV= portfolio taking up new business with Allianz was “entirely in line” with the insurer’s plan.

Dye said: “If this conversion level continues the total extra commercial revenue coming into the business will reach £161m, which is a sizeable addition to our P&L account.

“In a highly competitive market and with our focus on achieving profitable growth it would have been totally unrealistic to have expected a conversion rate significantly higher than we are achieving.”

Revenue

With transfers between the insurers ongoing, Allianz revenues for 2018 dropped by £70m for 2018 - from £2.11bn to £2.04bn.

Allianz is still to receive around £121m of LV= commercial business this year. But this revenue boost is largely cancelled out by £115m in home and motor policies still to be transferred to LV=.

But Dye told Insurance Times the revenue position is not a concern, as Allianz will take its 69.9% controlling stake in LV= in December.

He said the results will then be merged and broken down to reveal the individual performance of both companies.

“We’ll have no revenue problem because when we get to change of control we will add their revenue to our revenue, so in the end the combined Allianz and LV= group gets added up and consolidated in our accounts,” he said.

“So I’m not in any way concerned about our revenue position because if you look at the underlying position with our commercial business, it’s growing, and then we have the transfers in on top.”

Allianz reported underlying growth of 4.6% in commercial lines for 2018, excluding the LV= transfers.

There was also 9.2% underlying growth in the personal lines portfolio not transferred to LV=.

Once home and motor transfers are complete Allianz estimates it will still be writing £743m in personal lines business.

Dye said there were no plans to transfer any other personal lines products to LV= in the future.

“If you look at pet, legal, musical and the other elements of our remaining personal lines business they are all growing,” he said.

Appointments

LV= recently announced the appointment of three new broker account managers, including Darren Bringes, who had spent the last eight years with Allianz as a key account developer.

Dye said broker support teams would remain for home and motor up until all standard transfers have completed in June. But he hopes that as departments are scaled down, that more staff will find opportunities at LV=.

“One of the things we believe we will achieve through the joint venture is creating massive opportunity for people on both sides,” he said.

Allianz employs about 4,000 people in the UK. LV= employs around 3,000. Dye said the joint venture would create more job opportunities on both sides.

He added: “There have been a number of people that have transferred in both directions already, and that’s something I know that (LV General Insurance chief executive) Steve Treloar and myself would like to continue.

“Having established the joint venture, those opportunities will be there forever.”

Departures

In the past three months, three senior employees have exited the insurer.

Former director of SME and corporate partnerships David Martin left for Zurich, ex-head of commercial motor Jon Dye joined QBE and Jacob Abboud left his role as the insurer’s chief information officer amid a merging of the IT and operations team.

Dye explained that none of these exits were a result of the joint venture.

He said the restructure that led to Abboud’s departure was to ensure the business is well placed to deal with other changes being made to the business.

These include investments in technology in the commercial branches, further digitalisation of its pet business and further services for brokers in the engineering business.

In the case of Martin he said brokers had been impressed with the speed at which a successor had been announced.

Helen Bryant was named as Martin’s successor within 48 hours of his departure being confirmed.

Dye said it demonstrated there was a clear succession plan in place. In the case of his namesake, he revealed a replacement would also be named from within.

“With Jon Dye’s successor it’s taking a bit longer because we have several very credible candidates within the business and we have to go through a proper process to decide which of them will get the job,” he said.

“We’re in a very strong position in that we have clear internal succession here, we just have to work out which of the candidates is going to get it.”