Member Article

Skipton Building Society’s PHP health insurance arm acquired by London firm

Skipton Building Society has sold its health insurance arm The Private Health Partnership to London firm Punter Southall Health & Protection Consulting for an undisclosed sum.

This follows quickly on from the sale of Skipton’s mortgage services branch last week for £47.5 million.

PHP’s staff in Baildon in West Yorkshire and its businesses in Chester in Cheshire and Farnham in Surrey will be retained as new growth and development opportunities are pursued.

The announcement comes after PSHPC has grown strongly over the last six years.

The business now advises more than 700 corporate clients and 7,500 SME and personal lines clients, worth more than £150m in insurance premiums. PHP management were in full support of the sale, which has been approved by the FCA.

PSHPC managing director John Dean said: “The fit between our two businesses is almost perfect. PSHPC is recognised for its market-leading delivery of creative employee healthcare, wellbeing and protection insurances. PHP specialises in healthcare insurance and pioneering medical services.

“The routes to the market place are also complementary. PSHPC originates from an employee benefits and actuarial background, whereas PHP’s has evolved through key introducers and trade associations.

“The new, combined business will fully service the whole UK corporate and personal lines market with a robust and extended set of innovative health-related propositions.”

Dean added that PHP’s propositions include Red Arc Assured and Medical Care Direct, specialist services for patient-centred case management and medical treatment sourcing respectively.

PSHPC’s include Gladis – a unique platform for managing protection benefits –and Healthsmart, an integrated absence management service.

PHP Group’s managing director Jan Lawson, said: “We are delighted to be joining forces and look forward to a dynamic future. The scale, technology, expertise and influence of the combined specialist business will deliver significant additional value for our existing and new clients.”

Skipton Group chief executive David Cutter said: “We are pleased with the way we have been able to develop PHP since it has been part of the Skipton Group, in collaboration with its management team.

“However, the new collaboration with Punter Southall offers an opportunity not to be missed for The Private Health Partnership. We will look forward to seeing it flourish in the years to come.”

The acquisition was carried out by Punter Southall Health & Protection Holdings Limited, which owns PSHPC, and is part of Punter Southall Group (PSG), which has businesses in actuarial consulting, administration, financial consultancy and investment management.

Earlier this year, PSG’s institutional investment arm, P-Solve, merged with asset manager River and Mercantile Group to float on the stock exchange.

Skipton is the UK’s fourth largest building society, with over 763,000 customers, £14.5 billion of assets and a national presence represented by its network of branches and agencies.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Clare Burnett .