24 February 2015 Insurance

QBE offloads Argentinian business

Australian insurer QBE has sold its workers’ compensation business in Argentina to WST SA, a subsidiary of the Werthein Group, for $95 million.

QBE said that the group has had a significant presence in the Argentine insurance market over the last two decades.

The transaction, which represents around 1.7x book value, is expected to close during the third quarter of 2015.

John Neal, QBE Group chief executive officer, said: “As previously announced, we conducted a strategic review of our operations in Latin America. This included a thorough evaluation of our Argentine workers’ compensation business, the rapidly changing litigation landscape and the ongoing impact of economic volatility.

“The sale to a well-known local operator with the requisite infrastructure and scale means QBE can now focus on building our remaining, largely short-tail, P&C business in Argentina and in the Latin American region more broadly.”

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