Insured Group has approved the replacement of its auditor Grant Thornton.

Somes Cooke Chartered Accountants, of Perth, will take over the role after shareholders approved the move at the annual general meeting last week. There were no votes against the motion.

The change was proposed by shareholder Purecoast, of which Insured Group MD Wayne Miller is a director. No reason was given for the change.

Also announced at the meeting was the resignation of Insured Group director Santino Di Giacomo, who was also joint company secretary and financial director.

No replacement director will be appointed, Mr Miller told shareholders.

Fellow directors Barry Driscoll, Jonathon Gilbert and Daniel O’Leary were all re-elected.

Meanwhile, Insured Group has reported another loss for the half-year to December 31.

It was $518,000 down in the six months, compared with a $992,000 loss in the previous corresponding period.

However, the company made a $234,000 profit for calendar 2012.

Revenues dropped to $1 million, down 16.5% on $1.2 million in the second half of 2011.

Borrowings remained static at $7.9 million on December 31.

Insured Group aims to dispose of $2.5 million of Priority One Network shares before March 31, but these can only be realised when the latter achieves a listing on the Australian Securities Exchange.

Priority One Network has a revised prospectus on offer after the Australian Securities and Investments Commission put a stop order on the original one last year.

Insured Group has reviewed WA operations including ACI Broking and is cutting staff costs, with a “focus on operational efficiency”, according to MD Wayne Miller.

“This has been assisted by the change to insurance company operations, where our electronic transactional interaction has increased while personal interaction has reduced,” he said. 

“We have made a deliberate focus on hiring enthusiastic staff requiring mentorship, but [who are] extremely flexible in working methodology.

“The transition to a younger category of staff and promoting from within has seen our business less vulnerable to competitor threat, better suited to the modern insurance environment and more enthusiastic to the challenge after intense ‘battle-hardening’ in the past 12 months.”

Mr Miller predicts a profit this year.