THE French owner of car repairs chain Kwik-Fit has agreed to sell its insurance broking arm in a £215m deal.
Private equity group PAI Partners is selling Kwik-Fit Insurance Services – which has about 600,000 customers with policies across lines including home, car and travel insurance.
The business is being bought by UK division of Belgian insurer Ageas.
The buyer said the deal would consolidate its position as the fourth largest personal insurance broker in the UK, with 1.6m customers.
The sale of the insurance arm comes after PAI pumped £20m into the business earlier this year to avoid breaching banking covenants.
Proceeds from the sale will help to cut Kwik-Fit’s net debts, which stood at £811m at the end 2009.
