Quinn May Sell Insurance Arm

The Quinn group has decided to sell off its insurance division in an effort to address the solvency issues which led to the insurer being placed into adminstration last month.

In a brief statement on Friday, the group said the funding needed to meet the solvency requirements laid down by the Financial Regulator and the future of Quinn Insurance were "probably best protected under new ownership".

The statement came as Quinn Insurance workers were waiting to be briefed on the scale of the redundancies facing the company.

The joint administrators of the insurer are expected to seek about 800 job cuts from the company's offices in Ireland and the UK as part of a major downsizing of the business.

In its statement, the Quinn group said the board was “greatly saddened” by the redundancies which are expected to be announced by the joint administrators today.

“In this connection the board has reluctantly come to the conclusion that, in the interests of all stakeholders but especially Quinn Insurance employees, it should consider selling Quinn Insurance,” it said.

The group’s chief executive Liam McCaffrey said: "We will be working closely with the administrators to see if this objective can be achieved in as short a time as possible with the hope that this will protect the maximum number of jobs”.

“Quinn Insurance has a robust and profitable business model with a skilled and loyal workforce. However prolonging the situation is not in anyone's interest and that is why we have reached this decision," he added.

The redundancies are expected to be voluntary and implemented over a 12 to 15-month period, as elements of the UK business wind down.

Workers are to be briefed at the four operations centres in the Republic this afternoon. A press conference has been scheduled to take place at the company's head office in Cavan town later today.

Taoiseach Brian Cowen today expressed his concern for the workers, saying the Government would use the state agencies to assist in “whatever way it could”.

But he insisted the plan by the administrators to return the company to a stable financial footing had to be examined first.

Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Innovation Batt O’Keeffe yesterday pulled out of a week-long trade mission to Australia to make himself available to deal with the fallout from today’s announcement.

Late Thursday, the Financial Regulator gave the go-ahead for Quinn Insurance to re-enter the motor insurance market in the UK.

Posted at 09:00AM May 03, 2010 by Marc Stenton in Insolvency  |  Comments[0]