How Assur Africa Holdings made over N30bn in two years from Mansard Insurance deal

 

Chuks Udo Okonta

 

That the Nigerian Insurance Industry is a goldmine yet to be fully tapped, has further been reaffirmed with the recent divestment by Assur Africa Holdings of its 77% stake in Mansard Insurance plc, a deal put at about N44.14 billion, fetching the firm over N30 billion in two years.

 

Assur Africa Holdings bought 67.68 per cent of Guaranty Trust Assurance Plc for N11.91 billion in 2012. The investment led to the change of the name of the firm to Mansard Insurance Plc in 2012.   

 

Assur within the period acquired more stakes, which upped its holdings to 77 per cent which was sold to the France insurance giant, AXA Group, which is a worldwide leader in insurance and asset management, with 157,000 employees serving 102 million clients in 56 countries.

In 2013, IFRS revenues amounted to Euro 91.2 billion and IFRS underlying earnings to Euro 4.7 billion. AXA had Euro 1,113 billion in assets under management as of December 31, 2013.

It is a founding member of the UN Environment Programme’s Finance Initiative (UNEP FI) Principles for Sustainable Insurance and a signatory of the UN Principles for Responsible Investment.

 

Mansard Insurance which won the Nigerian Insurance Company of the Year 2013, organised by Inspenonline, is the number four insurance provider in Nigeria with operations in both Property & Casualty (#4 with five per cent market share) and Life & Savings (#5 with four per cent market share).

 

The company is well established in commercial lines, which represents nearly two thirds of its revenues, and has been developing successfully its retail business, achieving a growth of 40 per cent per annum on average over the past three years. Mansard has built a strong competitive advantage through its multi-channel approach, with a strong focus on proprietary networks.