RSA Insurance to Sell Italian Unit to ITAS Mutua

RSA Insurance Group Plc (RSA) agreed to sell its Italian business to ITAS Mutua, the country’s oldest customer-owned insurer.

RSA will transfer GBP 434 million of liabilities to ITAS and receive a payment of GBP19 million, the London-based company said in a statement recently. The insurer expects to recognise a 28 million-pound gain, boosting its capital surplus by about GBP50 million.

“This transaction continues the excellent momentum of our announced disposals in 2014 and represents further progress in tightening the strategic focus of the group,” RSA Chief Executive Officer Stephen Hester said in the statement.

The sale of RSA Italy comes amid eight months of disposals for Hester, who is reversing a decade of expansion in the wake of an accounting scandal in Ireland and a 775 million-pound rights issue. The former banker has sold businesses throughout Asia, the Baltics, Poland and Canada, raising more than 600 million pounds, double his target for year end.

RSA Italy writes both personal and commercial insurance and accounted for 221 million pounds of net written premiums and a 1 million-pound underwriting loss for the group in 2013.