Laya pays out €20m dividend as profits rise to €28.7m

Insurer Laya Healthcare paid out dividends of €20 million last year to its parent group AIG after reporting an €8.2 million rise in pretax profits to €28.7 million.

The company attributed the rise in profits to increased customer numbers and a curtailment gain of €4.1 million linked to the closure of its defined benefits pension scheme.

Laya, which saw member numbers rise from 580,000 to 592,000 over the period, reported a 7 per cent decline in revenues from €77.1 million to €71.9 million in 2019.

Employee numbers at the insurer rose to 560 from 531, with staff-related costs, including wages and salaries, rising to €47.3 million from €29.9 million, predominantly because of the ending of the pension scheme.

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Laya is the country's second largest health insurer. First established as Bupa Ireland, the Laya brand was launched in May 2012 following a management buyout of the then Quinn Healthcare.

AIG acquired the insurer in deal valued at about €80 million in 2015. In recent years, the company has expanded its product offering to include life insurance, travel insurance, and health and wellbeing programmes.

Clinics

During 2019, Laya announced a major multimillion-euro plan to create a nationwide network of health and wellbeing clinics, in what was seen as a belated response to VHI’s decision to restrict access to its Swiftcare clinics to all but its own members two years ago.

The insurer last week announced price hikes of almost 3 per cent from the start of next year despite a fall in the level of claims during the Covid crisis. It said the average price increase would add about €35 onto each policy, meaning a family of four could end up paying more than €100 extra in 2021 when compared with this year.