Insurance Advisernet Australia (IAA) has moved into the UK market with the acquisition of retail broker Worldwide Sports Insurance.

The acquisition will give IAA a UK financial services licence, and Chairman Ian Carr says it aims to replicate the IAA model in the British market.

The sale comes into effect on February 29, subject to UK regulatory approval. The purchase price has not been disclosed.

Worldwide Sports has an office in Norwich and six staff, who will all be retained. It was sold to IAA by Wild Goose Holdings, which also owns Melbourne-based Sportscover.

Sportscover Director Marketing and International Development Steve Boucher told insuranceNEWS.com.au the takeover by IAA is “part of our strategy of focusing on developing our Lloyd’s operations and underwriting agencies within the Wild Goose Holdings group”.

He says the deal further strengthens Sportscover’s long-standing relationship with IAA “and ensures that Worldwide Sports will have the support and focus that it needs from a dedicated international broking group to thrive and grow in the future”.

Although IAA has bought the company, it has an arrangement with the local director, Graeme Jolly, to buy back the business so it eventually operates under IAA’s authorised representative model.

Mr Carr says his fellow director and co-founder Fred Allsopp has moved to London for three years to consolidate the acquisition and expand the rollout of the IAA model.

There is no exact copy of IAA’s authorised representative model in the UK, and Mr Carr believes it will work particularly well there.

“We have a tried and proved model and see no reason why we cannot replicate that model in other selected countries around the world,” he said.

IAA has a long-standing relationship with Sportscover, which Mr Carr says was a positive factor when he and Mr Allsopp were looking at the UK market.

“As we expand in the UK market we will expand Sportscover’s distribution of their products,” he told insuranceNEWS.com.au.