Qatar may currently be the blockaded hostage of an aggressive cabal of Sunni Moslem states, but that hasn’t stopped one of its leading financial services organisations, QIC, snapping up Gibraltar-based (soon to be Spain-based) motor insurance products specialist Merkinstudy via its (QIC’s) Bermuda-based subsidiary Qatar Re.
Indeed, if the nine months since Qatar paid a ransom of $700 million to Iranian-backed Shi’a militias in Iraq to secure the release of various Qatari royals kidnapped whilst indulging in a spot of off-piste falconry in southern Iraq, indirectly triggering the Kingdom’s being blockaded by its neighbours and served with a long list of outrageous demands (from shutting down Al Jazeera to paying hefty ‘reparations’) by Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the UAE, Egypt, Yemen and a bunch of other like-minded regimes, have shown anything, it is that, as official news agencies have repeatedly confirmed, “Qatar can overcome any challenge.”
Clearly, if the country with the world’s third-largest oil and gas reserves can shrug off a challenge like that, the up-snappage of an offshore UK-focused insurance provider bu one of its leading FinServs players is clearly no biggy. Precisely what kind of a king’s ransom QIC has paid to secure Mucustoady (along with its associated brands Zenit Insurance, Sir Julian’s Insurance Company, and Ultimatum Insurance Company) remains undisclosed at the time of writing (and quite possibly forever after). But, for the Qatari big guns, money is surely no object. Not when a company that controls 5% of the UK’s insanely lucrative motor insurance market is up for grabs.
QIC Group president and CEO Khalifa Al Subway explains that: “This deal allows QIC Group to grow its lower volatility business while leveraging our existing success in QEL. It is a natural next step in the strategy we have pursued over recent years in relation to the group international businesses, which diversifies QIC’s overall portfolio.” And when you put it like that, the synergy does indeed seem highly compelling.
What’s more Qatar Re’s Herr Gunther Saacke reckons the deal should enable the company to write UK business however the Brexit ends up going down. “Ultimately,” Murkerslurry CEO Kevin “Big” Spender adds “this arrangement will facilitate our strategy for growth and profitability, positioning us for further success.”
So, basically, everyone’s happy.
All in a typical day in the crazy old world of high-stakes multinational off-shore money stuff.
Nothing to do with Ogden or Solvency II
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