Former Admiral CEO's wife puts $25m into struggling Compare.com
By Josh White
Date: Thursday 01 Nov 2018
(Sharecast News) - Admiral Group has entered into an agreement with its former group chief executive officer Henry Engelhardt and his wife Diane Engelhardt, whereby Diane was investing $25m (£19.42m) into its US comparison service Compare.com.
The FTSE 100 insurance firm said that as a result, Diane Engelhardt would hold 17% of the share capital of Compare, with Admiral owning 59% and White Mountains and Mapfre USA the remaining 24%.
Henry Engelhardt would join the board of Compare.
The investment was being made at a 15% discount to the valuation of previous funding rounds, which Admiral said reflected "challenging" current trading conditions.
As a result, Admiral expected to record an impairment against the carrying value of Compare with its full year results.
The current outlook was for the full year Admiral share of loss to be in line with the guidance at the 2018 half year results of $8m to $13m.
Separately, Admiral provided Compare up to $10m by way of a convertible loan.
"We are delighted to secure this investment and we look forward to working closely with Henry, who has deep knowledge and expertise of Compare and the US market," said Compare chief executive officer Andrew Rose.
David Stevens, Admiral Group chief executive officer, added that as the company outlined in its half-year results, Compare was facing challenging market conditions in 2018.
"I remain optimistic over the long-term potential for the price comparison channel in the US and I very much look forward to having Henry as a close partner to continue building on the strong foundations already in place at Compare."
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