Munich Re, one of the world’s largest reinsurance companies, has lowered its stake in London-based insurer Admiral to roughly 1.8%.
The German reinsurer has sold a further 7.4 million shares in Admiral in a placing at 2,023p per share.
It comes roughly a year after Munich Re sold 12.1 million shares, or 4% of its holding in the carrier, taking its total holding at this time down to 6% of its market cap.
The reinsurer’s holding has now declined further, to a reported 1.8% after the most recent sale of shares.
“Munich Re continues to believe in Admiral’s business model and management team and the sale is not expected to have any impact on the business relationship with Admiral,” said the firm.
Further, the reinsurer has committed to not sell any additional shares in Admiral for 12 months.
Munich Re’s shareholding in the UK-listed insurer goes back to 2002 and prior to the end of April 2009, stood at 15.1%.
On April 30th, 2009, the reinsurance firm announced that it had sold 13 million shares in the company, reducing its holding down to 10.2%.
Munich Re’s holding stayed at this level for some time, until in October 2021, when the sale of 4% of its holding in Admiral meant that the reinsurer held roughly 18 million shares in the company. This has now fallen to around 10.6 million shares following the recently announced sale of another 7.4 million shares.
The two firms have a long-standing reinsurance relationship relating to co-insurance and reinsurance arrangements for Admiral’s UK car insurance business. During its H1 2021 results announcement, Admiral revealed the extension of its arrangements with Munich Re.
A 10% quota share agreement remains in place until at least 2023, and for the remaining 30%, 20% of this is now on a co-insurance basis via Great Lakes and will extend to 2029. The remaining 10% will be on a quota share reinsurance basis and these arrangements have been extended to 2026.
