Admiral, the only FTSE 100 company from Wales, previously announced that it was snapping up the insurtech to accelerate the growth of Admiral’s footprint in France. As noted at the time, Admiral was not acquiring Luko’s operations in Germany and Spain. Last month, neo-insurer Getsafe agreed to buy the entire German customer base of Luko Insurance.
Now it’s been confirmed that Admiral is not interested anymore.
“Admiral had intended to purchase Luko’s French household business (Luko Cover),” the UK enterprise told TechCrunch. “Unfortunately, they were unable to meet the conditions set out in the transaction documents and the parties were unable to reach an agreement to enable this deal to complete.”
It was reported that one of the reasons for Admiral’s U-turn was the €2.3 million discrepancy between the premiums collected on behalf of third-party insurers and those collected by Luko Cover. This was discovered during due diligence, alongside a sum apparently owed by the insurtech in the form of tax contingencies.
According to TechCrunch and Sifted, Allianz has agreed to take the place of Admiral in the French deal. Luko, however, has since gone into receivership, with an administrator already appointed to take charge of public bidding.
Meanwhile Luko was quoted as saying: “Luko Cover, the broker and manager of contracts marketed by Luko, and Luko Insurance AG, the insurer of the Luko Group [are] separate entities… Luko’s insurance and brokerage activities therefore continue to operate normally.”
It remains to be seen whether Allianz’s offer would materialise.
What do you think about this story? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
