Sale of Quinn policies to go to court for approval

A proposal for the transfer and sale of some 1.3 million general insurance policies held mainly by UK-based customers of Quinn Insurance Ltd (QIL) to Catalina Insurance Ireland Ltd will be put before the High Court for approval in June.

The joint administrators of QIL are seeking the court’s approval for the sale to Catalina of the run-off of the Quinn Insurance portfolio of 1.3 million policies, representing the last remaining insurance business of QIL, which was placed in administration in 2010.

Of these, 1,043,000 policies were written in England, Scotland and Wales; 274,000 in Northern Ireland; 700 in Belgium; 1,300 in the Netherlands and 68 in Germany.

President of the High Court Mr Justice Nicholas Kearns made various directions, including for the advertisement of the petition seeking the sale, and returned the matter for hearing on June 5th.

Quinn Insurance ceased writing new business in Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands in 2009 and in the UK in late 2012. The run-off of the UK business was managed by insurer Liberty under a transitional services agreement.

Some of the policies to be transferred to Catalina under the proposed scheme have been subject of reinsurance arrangements which will not be altered following transfer, except that QIL’s rights and obligations under the reinsurance contracts will be transferred to Catalina.

In an affidavit, one of the joint administrators, Michael McAteer, said the proposed transfer was being undertaken due to the position of QIL and to effect “an orderly and advantageous” unwind of the insurer’s business and remaining policies.

Unaffected

Having considered the scheme with the benefit of initial advice from an independent actuary, Mr McAteer said he was satisfied the holders of the transferring policies would not be adversely affected as a result of the scheme.

The UK business comprised mostly motor policies but also includes some 23,000 household policies and more than 46,000 commercial non-motor policies, he said.

The number of outstanding claims by the end of September 2014 was 2,317, of which only 30 related to the non-UK policies, he said. On that date, QIL’s total reserves amounted to €461 million, he said.

Mr McAteer said Catalina, under former name HSBC Insurance (Ireland) Ltd, was authorised to carry on non-life insurance business in Ireland.