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<\/div>\nUnited Kingdom\u2019s Admiral Group has agreed to sell its U.S. auto insurance business \u2014 Elephant Insurance Co. and Elephant Insurance Services\u2014 to the private investment firm J.C. Flowers & Co. for an undisclosed cash consideration representing approximately the net asset value of Elephant.<\/p>\n
Headquartered in Richmond, Virginia, Elephant is a property\/casualty insurance that offers auto as well as home, motorcycle, and life insurance direct to customers through an online application process. It sells in Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia.<\/p>\n
Admiral indicated it is selling Elephant in order to focus on its core business.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a good outcome not only for Elephant and its employees, but also the Group and our shareholders. This transaction will enable us to focus on the opportunities we see for delivering long-term sustainable growth in our businesses in the UK and Mainland Europe,\u201d commented Costantino Moretti, head of International Insurance for Admiral Group.<\/p>\n
Eric Rahe, managing director and co-president of J.C. Flowers, noted that Flowers has a long history of investing in the insurance industry. Rahe said Flowers will leverage its experience to \u201chelp Elephant Insurance generate new opportunities as a standalone company.\u201d<\/p>\n
The move by Admiral was not unexpected. In March, Admiral executives acknowledged they had been assessing the strategic options for Elephant and were in talks with a potential acquirer.<\/p>\n
Admiral Group had a very good 2024, reporting a record group pre-tax profit of 839.2 million pounds ($1.08 billion) for the year, up 90% from a year earlier.<\/p>\n
Elephant also saw improvement in 2024 after what the company said were \u201csome quite bruising years in the U.S.\u201d Admiral executives said the team at Elephant Auto deserved \u201chuge credit\u201d for \u201cmaterially improving the bottom line in 2024\u201d and engineering what they said was a \u201cpleasing turnaround\u201d despite some shrinking of the size of the Elephant book of business. The result swung from a loss of \u00a320 million to a profit of \u00a314 million due to a much improved loss ratio and a \u201cvery solid\u201d expense outcome.<\/p>\n
Elephant Insurance was founded in 2009, as an American subsidiary of the Admiral Group, a direct-to-consumer insurance provider in the U.K. that brought this business model to the U.S. via Elephant.<\/p>\n
Andrew Rose was the founder and CEO of Elephant. He left the company in 2012 to become president and CEO of Admiral\u2019s comparison-shopping website, Compare.com. Former Admiral Group FD and Confused.com CEO Kevin Chidwick took over as CEO of Elephant from 2012 to 2017. When he stepped down, Henry Engelhardt, the co-founder, and former CEO of Admiral Group, stepped in as interim CEO. The current CEO of the company is Alberto Schiavon, a native of Italy, who became CEO in 2017 after spending five years with Admiral.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis partnership will enable us to benefit from their extensive expertise which will play a critical role for the next phase of our growth strategy and add value for our customers, whilst maintaining our distinctive culture.\u201d Elephant CEO Schiavon commented.<\/p>\n
The transaction is subject to regulatory approval and is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2025.<\/p>\n
Admiral Group plc is a leading FTSE 100 Financial Services company offering motor, household, travel and pet insurance as well as personal lending products. Established in 1993 in the UK, it has offices in Canada, France, Gibraltar, India, Italy, and Spain.<\/p>\n
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