Ensurance’s re-focus on the Australian market has received a significant boost, as the business moves to sell its UK operations to PSC Insurance Group.

The two parties announced last week a non-binding agreement in which PSC will pay $6.15 million in cash and the remaining $2.05 million via PSC shares for Ensurance UK. The deal remains subject to due diligence and regulatory approvals, and the two parties aim to execute transaction documentation by the end of this month.

Ensurance says it intends to “redeploy” the capital from the $8.2 million sale into its Australian business.

“Our Australian business is expanding rapidly and we believe there is much more growth to come,” CEO Tom Kent said.

“We have taken the strategic decision to redeploy the capital from the sale of the UK operations into our Australian business to ensure we can take full advantage of these growth opportunities.”

He told insuranceNEWS.com.au the business will be moving into environmental liability and has made key hires in the last few months to support the growth of the Australian operations.

“We will be expanding products in the long-tail areas. We will also be moving to short-tail classes as well,” he said. “At the moment, our main product line is professional indemnity.”

He says the business has a “huge runway” for growth and currently has about 1000 individual brokers and 150 broking houses to distribute its products.

Ensurance has in the last few years been working to establishing its UK business, having sold its Australia-focused underwriting arm to 360 Construction and Engineering in 2020.

But last year Ensurance signalled its renewed Australia ambitions with the acquisition of TK Specialty Risks, a professional and financial lines-focused underwriting agency with a network of more than 70 brokers across the country. TK Specialty has since been rebranded as Ensurance Australia.

PSC says the acquisition of Ensurance UK is “highly complementary” with its strategy for the market, where it has built up a sizeable presence with broking acquisitions.

Ensurance UK, a construction-based underwriting agency with offices in London and Manchester, makes about $4.4 million in annual revenues, has a depth of distribution within the local broking market and strong supporting underwriting capacity.

“It is highly complementary with our existing Chase Underwriting UK construction underwriting agency business, expanding our current distribution platform and product range,” PSC said.