UK insurer may have Zurich eyeing it up for a takeover, but boss Stephen Hester knows shareholders will want him to see whether others might take a gander
Here’s a safe prediction: a sale of RSA Insurance to Zurich, or any other foreign bidder, would produce not a single howl of anguish about a great British company being sold overseas.
Insurance for cars and homes doesn’t stir patriotic juices like chocolate (Cadbury’s) or pharmaceuticals (AstraZeneca). The industry is utterly unloved on account of a business model that relies on sufficient numbers of punters being too dozy to notice the price rises slipped into renewal quotes. And, in RSA’s case, everybody has always understood that chief executive Stephen Hester’s task is to generate hard value for long-suffering shareholders by whatever means necessary.