THE SALE of the Quinn Insurance group to US insurance giant Liberty Mutual is expected to be completed by October, the High Court was told yesterday.
In their eighth interim report to the court since being appointed joint administrators in March last year, Michael McAteer and Paul McCann said yesterday the losses at the company had been stemmed and the operation was profitable.
Profits before tax for the first three months of this year were €14 million and amounted to €24 million for the first six months, the court was told.
Bernard Dunleavy, for the administrators, told High Court president Mr Justice Nicholas Kearns it was now anticipated the sale to Liberty Mutual, in a joint venture involving Anglo Irish Bank, would be completed on October 7th.
However, Mr Dunleavy added, it would not be possible to complete certain regulatory and operational matters, which were beyond the control of the administrators, by that date.
Figures up to December 2009 showed Quinn losses of €902 million, made up of €338 million in investment losses, with the remaining €564 million made up of operational losses attributable to business in the UK in 2009, he added.
Last May, the administrators estimated the total estimated call on the State insurance compensation fund would be €600 million but that figure had been increased to €693 million because of outstanding claims, Mr Dunleavy said.
It was anticipated there would be a large call on the fund but that would be offset by the payment of dividends from the sale of Quinn’s health insurance business.
If transfer of the business to Liberty Mutual was successful on October 7th, an application would be made for payment out of the fund, Mr Dunleavy added.
In relation to fees charged by the administrators, he said 55 staff had been involved in an integration project required under European Commission merger regulations. Reports would have to be prepared for the Central Bank and the British Financial Service Authority as Quinn had 482,000 active policies in Ireland and Britain, with 20,000 claims on those policies.
Mr Justice Kearns set October 4th for hearing the transfer to Liberty application and August 18th for hearing an application in relation to a number of matters including drawdown from the compensation fund.