Kiln has announced that it has agreed the sale of Kiln South Africa to One Financial Investment Holdings for an undisclosed sum.
Kiln established its South African operation in 1999. Since then, the business has been profitable and well run with a strong management team and a good talent pool. Despite its good performance, the operation follows a different model to Kiln’s other businesses which does not support Kiln’s growth strategy.
Charles Franks, ceo of Kiln, comments “Having looked at our operating structure as part of a strategy review which is now complete, we have come to the conclusion that the South African operation is not effectively set up to support our long term business objectives.
Our strategy, which is endorsed by our parent, Tokio Marine, is to generate growth by delivering specialist products to clients in strong and growing markets and ensuring our operations support that.
However, Kiln South Africa works to a different model from our other businesses and its product portfolio is not aligned with our more specialist offerings. As a result, it has become clear that its continued growth would require significant operational investment. To that end, we have worked diligently to find a strong partner in the region that has the infrastructure, scale and expertise to take it to the next level.
While the sale is complete with effect from today, we are keen to accept insurance risk from South Africa and we will continue to support the underwriting and relationships we have established by acting as a reinsurance provider to ONE. Our continuing business operations are unaffected by this change and we will remain focused on delivering our strategy.
ONE is a leading specialist provider of insurance products and services to the South African insurance market.
MD of ONE Short term operations Schalk Van Rensburg acknowledged the synergies that such a prestigious acquisition of the Kiln staff and business brings to the ONE group of companies: “Together we can continue offering dynamic holistic insurance solutions to a very diverse insurance market as both companies have enjoyed extremely well established broker relations formed over many years. These relationships form the basis of our business and we are committed to these partnerships going forward.”
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