Lloyds backs Direct Group refinancing deal
07/10/2009 09:00:00 by Marketing
Direct Group focuses on acquisition
Direct Group has completed a major debt refinancing to provide further funding for the group’s market consolidation strategy.
The facilities, arranged by Lloyds TSB Corporate Markets Acquisition Finance, will enable Direct Group to capitalise on acquisition opportunities across the sector as well as fund its organic growth plans. As part of the refinancing, Direct Group – which employs 230 people - has also moved its banking relationship to Lloyds TSB Corporate Markets.
Last year, Direct Group, which was backed by private equity company LDC in 2007, completed its maiden acquisition of Millennium Insurance, a Midlands provider of general insurance solutions to the mortgage broker and IFA market. In January this year, it took over the claims handling and administration business of MetLife’s UK protection arm as part of a five year deal, followed in April by the transfer of Nexus and Travel Protection Services - the claims administration businesses within Longhawk Group, previously UK Underwriting.
The company’s offering now includes market-leading products and services across the general insurance market, including product development, sales and premium collection, policy administration, claims management, reporting and performance management.
Derek Coles, chief executive of Direct Group, said: “Our clients are looking to partner with organisations that can support an increasingly broad range of requirements across their personal and commercial lines and across an increasingly complex set of distribution channels and platforms, while delivering consistently high service standards and real innovation.
“Since the original management buyout, our strategy has been to deepen our offering to the market, by enhancing and investing in our own service proposition and through the acquisition of complementary businesses. This is paying dividends, with the group reporting a strong pipeline and trading performance in the year to date.”
Direct Group Eyes Growth After Refinancing
06/10/2009 09:00:00 by Marketing
Direct Group, the fast-growing insurance services provider, has completed a major debt refinancing to provide further funding for the group’s market consolidation strategy.
The facilities, arranged by Lloyds TSB Corporate Markets Acquisition Finance, will enable Direct Group to capitalise on acquisition opportunities across the sector as well as fund its organic growth plans.
As part of the refinancing, Direct Group has also moved its banking relationship to Lloyds TSB Corporate Markets.
Last year, Yorkshire-based Direct Group, which was backed by private equity company LDC in 2007, completed its maiden acquisition of Millennium Insurance, a Midlands provider of general insurance solutions to the mortgage broker and IFA market.
In January this year, it took over the claims handling and administration business of MetLife’s UK protection arm as part of a five year deal, followed in April by the transfer of Nexus and Travel Protection Services (TPS) - the claims administration businesses within Longhawk Group (previously UK Underwriting).
The company’s offering now includes market-leading products and services across the general insurance market, including product development, sales and premium collection, policy administration, claims management, reporting and performance management.
Derek Coles, Chief Executive Officer of Direct Group, said: “Our clients are looking to partner with organisations that can support an increasingly broad range of requirements across their personal and commercial lines and across an increasingly complex set of distribution channels and platforms, while delivering consistently high service standards and real innovation.
“Since the original management buyout, our strategy has been to deepen our offering to the market, by enhancing and investing in our own service proposition and through the acquisition of complementary businesses. This is paying dividends, with the group reporting a strong pipeline and trading performance in the year to date.”
He added: “The years ahead present a unique opportunity to accelerate that strategy and we’ve been working closely with the team at LDC and their colleagues in Lloyds TSB Corporate Markets Acquisition Finance to put a financial structure in place to support that vision for growth.”
Ray Stenton, Director of LDC – which invested £21.3m in the business to support the management buyout - said: “There is a growing number of good quality assets coming onto the market, both independents and disposals from larger corporates, who need to build scale and depth in order to compete. Direct Group has the infrastructure, reputation, business model and strength of management to emerge as the market leader in fast-consolidating sector.”
Debt facilities were arranged by Mark Blower, Director of Lloyds TSB Corporate Markets acquisition finance.
Mark Blower said: “Through the combined support of the Lloyds Banking Group, we’re keen to ensure Derek and his team have the financial support to deliver their growth strategy.”
The refinancing follows several investments by LDC in the insurance support services market, including an £11million investment in the management buyout of Homeserve Emergency Services, a provider of home emergency fulfilment services, earlier this month (24 September).
In June, the private equity firm also backed the £19.95million management buyout of Ansa and Independent Inspections, both market leading providers of claims validation, management and fulfilment services on behalf of leading insurance companies.
Legal advisors to LDC and management were DLA Piper (Neal Shepherd).
Issued on behalf of LDC by Citypress.
Direct Group notes to Editors:
1.Direct Group aims to be a leading insurance services provider to the UK financial services marketplace. This vision is based around a philosophy of “treating customers and partners as we would expect to be treated ourselves”. The high quality of service offered by Direct Group is supported by a scalable and robust business platform which not only provides Clients’ and Insurers’ with unparalleled quality of management information but also provides the basis for expansion into new products and new market sectors.
2.Direct Group currently operates on a business-to-business basis by offering products to financial institutions, corporates and affinities plus a range of servicesacross the insurance industry. The services typically offered by Direct Group include product design, account development and training, policy administration, premium collection, claim handling, sales and service, insurer and captive reporting.
3.Direct Group Limited is authorised by the FSA no. 307332.
LDC notes to Editors:
1.LDC (Lloyds TSB Development Capital) is part of the Lloyds Banking Group and is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority.
1.LDC (Lloyds TSB Development Capital) is part of the Lloyds Banking Group and is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority.
2.LDC has, since 1981, completed over 400 investments, has ongoing interests in over 60 businesses across the UK.
3.LDC back ambitious management teams from UK-based companies seeking between £2m and £100m of equity for management buy-outs, institutional buy-outs or development capital transactions.
4.LDC invests in a broad range of sectors and has particular experience in financial services, healthcare, industrials, IT & software, leisure & media, retail & consumer, and support services.
5.LDC is the leading private equity company in the UK mid-market. Recent transactions include investments with 1ST – The Exchange, Ansa / Independent Inspections, Cranswick Pet & Aquatics, Modelzone, Nuclear Engineering Services Limited, Quantum Specials, and Snell Limited plus exits from ATP, ghd and Telecom Service Centres.
6.LDC has fourteen offices – Aberdeen, Amsterdam, Birmingham, Bristol, Edinburgh, Hong Kong, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham, Reading and Southampton.
7.For further information, visit www.ldc.co.uk.
Direct Group deploys ‘Validate’ to good effect on Protection claims
05/10/2009 09:00:00 by Marketing
Following the recent successful launch of their new fraud screening product ‘Validate’ on Travel claims, Direct Group has expanded the solution into Protection claims. This has proved beneficial, helping their Investigation services team, (DGIS) make an average saving of £2,800 on each claim investigated in respect of Accident, Sickness and Unemployment claims in the last 12 months.
While focus has always been given to validating new claims, Direct Group Investigation Services (DGIS) have also deployed the solution to ongoing accident, sickness and unemployment claims in an attempt to combat those who unnecessarily delay their return to work, as they believe insurers are not likely to investigate further once the claim has been accepted.
John Baldock, Head of Investigation Services at Direct Group comments “Our Validate product has been an instant success within Protection claims, in validating both new and ongoing claims we have shown our solution to be an effective alternative to traditional methods of field interviews and surveillance, which can both be costly and practically in-flexible, often unnecessarily delaying the claims process. Our solution can be deployed straight away, and in many cases has achieved better results than traditional methods”
“We have shown our solution to be effective in reducing claim durations, particularly on those claims where, although accepted correctly in the first instance, the claimant has actually returned to work without stopping their claim, or in a number of cases they are not actively looking to return to work and are attempting to prolong their claim payments wherever possible. We believe that these exaggerated claims are a major area of claims leakage, which can be effectively combated by deploying ‘Validate’. While acting as a wake-up call to unwise or dishonest claimants, our validation process serves as a welcome review and support call to genuine claimants looking to return to work.“ said John Baldock
Developed in partnership with the global actuarial consultancy EMB, the ‘Validate’ product, embraces world class behavioural science and proven technical claims skills into a software solution. This allows DGIS investigators to conduct Interactive Telephone Interviews (ITI) to screen and identify genuine claimants for fast tracking, while filtering out potentially fraudulent claims with Rating and Scoring.
Using the technology provides a unique on-screen scripted telephone interview process directly with the end customer, which uses Criteria Based Content Analysis (CBCA) to assess the plausibility of statements. This results in a rating and score for each case being produced at the end of each interview. The product greatly reduces the reliance on traditional methodologies, is more cost effective, faster and is without detriment to savings or customer experience.
Direct Group’s focus on cost-effective investigation solutions is supported by savings of £24 for every £1 invested with DGIS in the last year and as a result DGIS are in a number of discussions about rolling the product out to a wider audience.
– Ends –
For more information please contact: Chris Morgan at Direct Group on 01302 380464 or at chrismorgan@directgroup.co.uk
NOTES TO EDITORS:
About Direct Group
Direct Group are a leading Insurance Solutions Provider operating within the UK Financial Services Marketplace delivering insurance products and services downstream to Brokers, Intermediataries, Retailers, and Finance Companies as well as upstream, by providing bespoke outsourcing services to a range of Insurers. Since their foundation in 1990 Direct Group has expanded its services across a range of product areas, including: Motor, Household, Casualty and Life, providing their clients with an end-to-end service provision from point of sale solutions through to administration, premium collection, claims handling and fraud investigation services. Recent acquisitions have brought further expansion in Liability, Travel and Event claims.
New Division off to solid start for 2009
22/09/2009 12:00:00 by Marketing
Direct Group Investigation Services (DGIS) are pleased to announce that budgeted savings for insurers for the period January to August 2009, were well ahead of plan. The savings were achieved across Travel, Property, Protection and Motor claims, with impressive counter fraud performance on work where DGIS was directly instructed by external clients, with activity continuing to grow on the back of this performance.
John Baldock, Head of Investigation Services at Direct Group, commented “This demonstrates the success of the Direct Group’s counter fraud programme across all of our business lines. All claims handlers have contributed by referring suspicious claims activity to their Counter Fraud Champions (CFC) and then onto the DGIS investigation specialists.
DGIS have made significant savings on both large individual cases and many smaller examples.
“The team has successfully demonstrated that irrespective of claim size, substantial savings can be made by applying techniques suitable to the case in question and with appropriate consideration given to cost, thus ensuring that there is a clear benefit in deploying our services.”
“The team are committed to implementing effective investigation solutions on complex and technical claims demonstrated by the above success.” said John Baldock.
For more information, please contact John Baldock at Direct Group on 0751 5975696 or johnbaldock@directgroup.co.uk
Fraud screening reveals travel blues
01/07/2009 09:00:00 by Marketing
EMB announces new venture with Direct Group to spectacular effect on travel claims investigations
EMB has worked with Direct Group to produce and launch Validate, a new claims fraud screening software package which is demonstrating the extent to which the financial climate in the UK is taking its toll on holiday plans and spending.
“Following the introduction of EMB Validate software, we are already recording average savings of £400 per claim on travel claims. This represents an excellent indication of the further success we expect as we expand the service across our other product lines” said John Baldock, Head of Investigation Services at Direct Group.
Direct Group Investigation Services (DGIS) has begun using the EMB Validate software, which uses criteria-based content analysis (CBCA) to assess the plausibility of statements, not only on pre-selected travel claims but also on wedding, motor, creditor, and personal lines property claims. EMB Validate runs on a secure web portal and is being used to assist and support Direct Group’s specialist investigators to conduct interactive telephone interviews, thus providing a prompt and more cost-effective solution in combating fraud on lower value general insurance claims.
DGIS’ specialist investigators provide a range of investigation solutions from technical desk based assessments, including interactive telephone interviews, to a wide range of focussed field investigations, all of which are supported by a comprehensive range of research and analysis tools.
“In working with EMB to create Validate, we have a vital addition to the DGIS investigation tool kit which allows us to offer a unique and integrated claim solution, to our clients,” said Derek Coles, CEO of Direct Group
He added that the “EMB software uniquely produces a print out of the telephone interview with a risk assessment rating and score to support ease of decision making. This has helped to reduce the life cycle of claims and cut the cost of investigations.”
EMB Validate works by providing a scored and consistent scripting routine for identifying potential inconsistencies in claimants’ statements such as the structure in which they recall events, superfluous or excessive details and the context in which they put the incident or incidents behind the claim. This is based on academic methods that were originally applied to test the credibility of child statements in sexual abuse cases.
Mark Jones, a financial crime consultant at EMB, said: “Validate permits genuine claimants to be identified and reimbursed more quickly. At the same time, it means that the efforts of Direct Group’s investigation team can be directed far more cost-effectively.”
On average, he said that the automated questioning structure should reduce call handling times by 30% while engagement rates for investigation teams could typically be cut by 25%.
Notes to Editors
About EMB
Established in 1993, EMB (www.emb.com) is a rapidly growing international consultancy firm specialising in non-life insurance. Covering personal lines, commercial insurance and the London Market, its services include Business Consultancy, Actuarial Consultancy, Investment Consultancy, Professional Development, Marketing Sciences and Software. EMB pioneered the development and use of high performance actuarial software using modern desktop PCs. The range is unrivalled, making it feasible to perform tasks that would otherwise be impossible, impractical or hugely time-consuming. Headquartered in the UK, EMB employs more than 300 people around the globe covering Americas, Asia-Pacific and Europe, Middle East & Africa with clients that include 28 of the top 30 non-life companies in the world.
About Direct Group
Direct Group are a leading Insurance Solutions Provider operating within the UK Financial Services Marketplace delivering insurance products and services downstream to Brokers, Intermediataries, Retailers, and Finance Companies as well as upstream, by providing bespoke outsourcing services to a range of Insurers. Since their foundation in 1990 Direct Group has expanded its services across a range of product areas, including: Motor, Household, Casualty and Life, providing their clients with an end-to-end service provision from point of sale solutions through to administration, premium collection, claims handling and fraud investigation services. Recent acquisitions have brought further expansion in Liability, Travel and Event claims.
For more information, please contact:
Graham Whitehead at EMB:
Tel: 01372 751060
Email: graham.whitehead@emb.com
Web: http://www.emb.com
John Baldock at Direct Group:
Tel: 0751 5975696
