Quinn would sell insurance firm

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  • xman
    Admin
    • Sep 2006
    • 24007

    Quinn would sell insurance firm


    The administrators of Quinn Insurance are to make a formal announcement on Friday on the extent of redundancies within the company.Details of the plan leaked on Thursday, revealing that 800 jobs in total would be lost on both sides of the Irish border, with 200 redundancies in NI.

    Later on Thursday, the Irish regulator allowed the company full access to the UK car insurance market.

    Just over half of Quinn's 1.3m customers are based in the UK.

    The administrator plans to downsize the firm, a move which will affect about one third of the staff employed by the company on both sides of the border.

    About 200 will go from the company's operations in Enniskillen and Derrylin leaving a combined workforce of 450.

    'Massive impact'

    The remaining jobs will go at the offices in Cavan, Navan, Dublin and Manchester.

    It is believed the administrators, now running the company, hope the redundancies will be voluntary and take place gradually.

    The move to allow it to issue cover to full licence holders comes after meetings of committees of both the Irish parliament and the Northern Ireland Assembly on Thursday.

    Both committees subsequently urged the regulator to allow Quinn back in to the UK market.

    A statement from the Quinn Group on Thursday evening said permission to re-enter the UK car insurance market had come with conditions and implied that their prices will rise.

    The statement said: "The re-entry into full licence drivers incorporates significant pricing changes which we believe will lead to significantly lower volumes than were previously written by QIL (Quinn Insurance Limited) in the UK private motor market.

    "Nonetheless this is an important step in the process of ensuring the return of QIL to a sound financial and commercial footing."

    Quinn, which also offers other insurance products including professional liability cover, said it was continuing to work with the regulator "in relation to the potential of reopening other business lines".

    Losses

    Quinn workers' spokeswoman Mona Bermingham said staff were extremely fearful for their futures.

    "There's a lot of worry, disillusionment, dejection - it's going to have a massive impact and it's not something we'll be accepting easily."

    The firm's problem stem from massive losses made by its owner Sean Quinn in a stockmarket gamble on the now-failed Anglo Irish Bank.

    Although the job losses will mostly be in the Republic, the restructuring relates primarily to Quinn Insurance Ltd's businesses in the UK.

    Much of the UK business is handled by staff at Quinn's offices in Dublin, Cavan and Navan.


    In an email to staff the administrators said they were "extremely disappointed" that details of the job cuts had been leaked to the media ahead of an official announcement on Friday.This article is from the BBC News website. ? British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.


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