Admiral Group plc is a British

financial services Financial services are the economic services provided by the finance industry, which encompasses a broad range of businesses that manage money, including credit unions, banks, credit-card companies, insurance companies, accountancy companies, ...

company headquartered in

Cardiff Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of Wales. It forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a ...

, Wales. Listed on the

London Stock Exchange London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Pau ...

, it is a constituent of the

FTSE 100 Index The Financial Times Stock Exchange 100 Index, also called the FTSE 100 Index, FTSE 100, FTSE, or, informally, the "Footsie" , is a share index of the 100 companies listed on the London Stock Exchange with (in principle) the highest marke ...

, and markets the ''Admiral'', ''Bell'', ''Elephant'', ''Diamond'' and ''Veygo'' vehicle insurance brands, as well as launching the price comparison services ''

Confused.com Confused.com is a UK based financial services comparison platform specialising in comparison of insurance and financial services, including car insurance, home insurance, energy, van insurance and life insurance. Confused.com's platform includes ...

'' and ''

Compare.com Compare.com (formerly ''Comparenow.com'') is a comparison shopping website for intangible products, most notably car insurance, with headquarters in Richmond, VA. Compare.com was owned by its founding investor, Admiral Group plc, owner of the Unit ...

''. The group employs more than 10,000 people across its brands.

History

The business started as a division of the Brockbank Group in 1991. In November 1999,

Henry Engelhardt Henry Allan Engelhardt (born January 17, 1958) is an American businessman, and the founder and former chief executive of Admiral Group, a Welsh motor insurance company. He was credited as driving the company in to a position where it became one ...

led a

management buy-out A management buyout (MBO) is a form of acquisition in which a company's existing managers acquire a large part, or all, of the company, whether from a parent company or individual. Management-, and/or leveraged buyout became noted phenomena of 19 ...

of the Admiral Group from the Brockbank Group backed by Barclays Private Equity. On 23 September 2004, Admiral floated on the

. In September 2004, the Admiral Group plc announced the pricing of its

initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investme ...

, at an offer price of 275 pence per existing ordinary share. Based on the offer price, the

market capitalisation Market capitalization, sometimes referred to as market cap, is the total value of a publicly traded company's outstanding common shares owned by stockholders. Market capitalization is equal to the market price per common share multiplied by ...

of Admiral at the commencement of dealings on the

was £711 million. On 13 May 2015, it was announced that Engelhardt, would step down as CEO, and be replaced in 2016 by David Stevens, the COO. On 1 January 2021, David Stevens stepped down as CEO to be replaced by Milena Mondini de Focatiis. In April 2021, Admiral finalised the sale of interests, that included its Cardiff-based price comparison firm Confused.com, to RVU for proceeds of £508m.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Financial services companies established in 1991 1991 establishments in Wales Companies based in Cardiff Financial services companies of Wales Insurance companies of the United Kingdom Companies listed on the London Stock Exchange Private equity portfolio companies Welsh brands British companies established in 1991 Financial services companies of the United Kingdom