Chief executive defends financial record of software house as 12 employees depart.
Software house Insurecom is poised for international expansion and is eyeing acquisitions, its chief executive Philip Walter has said.
Walter said the company was looking to break into the North American market, focusing initially on Canada. “There is a market for AgencyPlus in North America. Canada is the first step,” he told Insurance Times. AgencyPlus is Insurecom’s flagship platform for large brokers, which it has spent millions developing.
Walter also hit back at Insurecom’s critics, saying that the company was financially sound. “Financially, the company has never been better. We are profitable, including development costs. We have no debt,” he said.
The company is due to report its 2007 results shortly. In 2006, it made its first profit for six years, reporting a pre-tax profit of £0.35m although this was achieved through a £3m asset sale.
Walter said the company was picking up on average four broker clients a month for AgencyPlus. “These brokers are coming from rival software houses. We are above our budgeted trend [for new business].”
AgencyPlus, launched in the last quarter of 2006, now had approximately 50 broker clients, Walter said.
Walter said that 12 staff had left the company in recent months, but this was due to the company’s changing focus on larger clients. “Going forward it is about fewer sales, but bigger sales, We are looking to grow revenues and market share. Profit will come from that.”
Millionaire investor seeks more UK targets
The millionaire American investor behind Insurecom has said he is eyeing further investment opportunities in the UK general insurance market. John C Head III, a former director and major shareholder of insurer Sphere Drake, said the UK insurance market was attractive sector in which to invest. In a rare interview with Insurance Times, Head said he was interested in service companies to the insurance sector as they were less capital intensive than insurance companies. The FSA, he said, did not understand the concept of return on capital.
