Shares in insurer Admiral (ADM) climbed 3.4% to a new lifetime high of £30.21 after the firm announced it had sold Confused.com and its Spanish and French price comparison websites for over £500 million.
ZPG Comparison Services, which owns Uswitch, agreed to pay £508 million plus an unspecified further amount for Admiral’s Penguin Portals Group, which owns car insurance comparison site Confused.com, Rastreator.com and LeLynx.fr along with Admiral Technologies and its half-share in Preminem Price Comparison Holdings.
Spanish insurer Mapfre, which owned a 25% stake in Rastreator and the other half of Preminem, will sell both assets to ZPG as part of the deal.
‘GOOD VALUE FOR SHAREHOLDERS’
For Admiral, net proceeds from the sale after transaction costs and minority interests (payments to Mapfre) will be ‘around £450 million’, the majority of which will be returned to shareholders thanks to the company’s ‘strong solvency and liquidity position’.
Chief executive David Stevens described the decision to sell ‘a wrench’ but said it was the right choice for the long-term success of the business ‘and provides good value for our shareholders’.
He added that the split will also allow Admiral ‘to focus on what it has consistently done well, namely designing and underwriting good value mass market financial service products’.
Admiral will continue to work with Confused.com and its European partners but without having to own them or fund their future development.
