Aon acquires exclusive Investec Private Bank insurance portfolio
Guy Scott, CEO of Aon Risk Services
Ian Kirk, Chief Executive of Santam.
Aon South Africa, the South African arm of Aon Corporation - a leading global risk management and insurance consulting organisation, has acquired the Santam Limited shareholding in Pinion Insurance Brokers (Pinion) and Pennant Administrators (Pennant).
The acquisition, effective 1 October, complements Aon’s global Affinity business which generates some 30% of Aon’s global revenues and supports Aon South Africa’s strategic growth in developing its Affinity business.
Anton Roux, CEO of Aon South Africa, says the alignment of the exclusive Pinion brand with a strong international brand like Aon, the world’s largest insurance broker, will allow both parties to leverage opportunities. He confirmed Aon will maintain an ongoing strategic partnership between itself, Santam and Investec, supported by back-to-back Service Level Agreements.
The Pinion and Pennant businesses were initially acquired in 2008 by Santam the underwriter of this business, when Investec Private Bank decided for strategic reasons to sell its interests in short term insurance brokers and administrators.
“Santam is an intermediated business and as such had no intention to own shareholding in this brokerage for an extended period. Instead, we used the business opportunity to invest substantial effort and money in a business where we recognised potential to position it strongly for future growth. Since this objective has been achieved, we feel confident that the timing is right to sell our interest in Pinion and Pennant. Our efforts over the last 12 months have been focused on improving the sustainable underwriting results as well as improving the profitability of the brokerage and administration process which have now been achieved,” says Ian Kirk, Chief Executive of Santam.
Wessel Oosthuyzen, Head of Investec Private Banking, believes there is an ideal culture fit with the global Aon Group which aligns closely with that of the exclusive Pinion clientele. “We are excited that Pinion will retain its branding but now be backed by a brand which has global experience in managing a portfolio of this nature.”
Aon Affinity combines dedicated portfolio management and the specialised knowledge of Affinity program experience with the extensive resources of a Fortune 250 company. This will bring high net-worth clientele an individual insurance offering, unparalleled personal service and portfolio management.
Guy Scott, CEO of Aon Risk Services, says a further advantage is Aon’s Private Risk Management capability aimed at high net-worth individuals. Aon will be able to access international best practice in evolving the private client offering. He also confirmed that the administration services of Pennant would be rolled out more broadly in the business and provide a valuable administrative function for some of Aon’s other volume/network business.
In November, Pinion and Pennant employees will move into the Aon offices at The Place, 1 Sandton Drive in Sandhurst and employees from other regional offices will integrate into Aon’s national branches. All aspects of service previously provided by the Pinion business unit will continue uninterrupted and Pinion and Pennant will remain as subsidiary entities to Aon South Africa.
