The Australian business of international insurer/investor Hollard Insurance isn’t for sale, according to the group’s Chairman Richard Enthoven.

An article in the Australian Financial Review last week says Hollard “ is taking counsel from [consultant] NMG” and “is understood to have been weighing an exit for some time”.

But Richard Enthoven, who chairs the privately owned South African company and is also its Australian CEO, told insuranceNEWS.com.au there is no basis to the story.

He says while he meets NMG consultants every year to discuss the company’s strategy, “I categorically deny that we are planning to quit Australia. To suggest we would do so flies in the face of our whole strategic direction.”

Since arriving in Australia in 1999, Hollard has invested in 12 underwriting agencies and 22 brokerages, and is seeking 28 more to partner. The company also has insurance businesses in Africa, the UK, the US and Asia, following a long-focus investment strategy.

Hollard has also denied the newspaper’s assertion that its Real Insurance operation is for sale due to “intense competition and lack of scale”.

Real Insurance Chairman Roger Grobler – who is also Hollard Australia’s Director of Operations – says rumours about Real Insurance being for sale “keep surfacing”.

“We had an unsolicited offer for Real in the past year, but we said no,” he told insuranceNEWS.com.au. “Hollard Australia made a $39 million after-tax profit in the last financial year, and Real Insurance provided very positive figures in achieving that.”

Read about Hollard and its strategy in the December issue of Insurance News (the magazine).