Collinson finishes One Group purchase

Collinson Insurance Group (CIG) has bought One Group, made up of One Assist and the assets of One Claims.

The One Group provides claims management and medical emergency assistance services to the travel and personal accident insurance markets, and directly to multinational corporations. 

As part of the deal, Collinson Insurance Group will merge its own claims handling from Columbus Direct and its other insurance brands with the One Group and transfer its existing assistance business into One Group from third-party suppliers.

One Group chief executive Paul Byrne will stay with the business, and will become director of the acquired division. 

Collinson Insurance Group managing director David Evans said: “One Group is a great business, with a very strong portfolio of clients, including a number of Lloyd’s syndicates and global airline partners. One Group’s worldwide expertise and multilingual language capabilities will help us to better serve our own international banking and third party clients. This deal gives Collinson group companies access to our own in-house assistance team, and as such helps us to reduce our third-party costs in our retail businesses, as well as allowing us to manage more directly the quality of claims assistance that we give to our clients.”

Byrne said: “Becoming part of a larger group such as CIG who are already known as a market leader within the travel industry opens up new and exciting opportunities. We look forward to a new phase of growth and development for our business.”