THE drive for share of the Irish insurance market has accelerated with the announcement of the £13 million takeover of general insurer AMEV by Royal & Sun Alliance. The take over puts the merged operation just short of second place in the general insurance market, with a share of just under 15 per cent.

The latest move comes just under a year after the Royal and Sun Alliance companies announced the international merger which made their Irish operations the third largest company in the market. They had premium income of £146 million in 1996 and a 12.5 per cent market share. Industry figures, due to be published soon, are expected to show that AMEV had 1.99 per cent of the market in 1996 with premium income of £23.4 million.

Between them, therefore, Royal & Sun Alliance and AMEV had 14.5 per cent of the market, just behind the second largest company in the market, AGF Irish Life, which had a 14.9 per cent share. Market leader GRE/PMPA had 18.8 per cent of the £1.17 billion market in 1996.

AGF Irish Life, the holding company for Church and General and Insurance Corporation, had net written premium income of £175 million last year.

Royal & Sun Alliance general manager Mr Harold Wann described the takeover as "very significant" in the Irish insurance market.

"It is yet another milestone in the inevitable rationalisation of the market. There is no doubt that the non life sector is concentrating and only those with meaningful market shares are in a position to deliver a cost effective product to the public."

Dutch/Belgian financial group Forfas said it had decided to sell AMEV, which produced a profit of £1 million last year, because there would be more growth opportunities for the operation "within a group which had a stronger presence in the Irish market".

Asked about the future for AMEV, Mr Wann said it would be "business as usual" with no change in name or in headquarters "for the time being". AMEV, which was set up as a greenfield operation in Ireland 14 years ago, has 90 employees and its headquarters are in Blackrock, Co Dublin. It is strong in personal lines business including motor, household and travel insurance selling through brokers and directly to customers.

Royal & Sun Alliance has just over 500 employees - the merger of Royal and Sun Alliance resulted in 65 redundancies. With headquarters in Dawson Street, Dublin, the company is strong in property, motor and liability insurance. The merged operation will have about 29 per cent of the property insurance market, about 20 per cent of non motor general insurance business and about 8.6 per cent of motor business, according to Mr Wann.

AMEV was a good strategic fit for his company and the takeover would lead to synergies, he said. "We are already a major player and their, business is complementary to ours.

Asked about possible redundancies, he said the overall expense ratio would have to be reduced in order to give clients better value for money. But he added it was not necessary to reduce staff numbers to do this; it could be achieved by increasing business.

"We have no negative views of the future," he said, adding that there would be job opportunities in the domestic market and throughout the group for staff.