NEW TARGET OF 13% NET INSURANCE MARGIN IN 2026, UNDERPINNED BY AT LEAST £100 MILLION COST SAVINGS BY THE END OF 2025 ON AN ANNUALISED RUN-RATE BASIS¹

ADAM WINSLOW, CEO OF DIRECT LINE GROUP, COMMENTED:

"I am excited to have joined a company with such a strong customer base and outstanding brands. In recent weeks I have met with many colleagues, and their desire to serve customers is evident.

"The Group has not always managed volatile market conditions successfully in recent years, particularly in Motor. However, it is clear that the decisive actions that Jon Greenwood and the team have taken over the last year have created a strong platform for recovery, including significant pricing and underwriting actions to improve our Motor margins and the sale of our brokered commercial business. This has enabled the Board to propose a dividend of 4 pence per share and for the Group to have a strong post-dividend solvency capital ratio of 197% at year-end 2023.

"While the picture has improved, we need to do more to drive performance and we have identified immediate actions we can take in 2024 to create value, including substantially reducing our cost base, driving claims excellence and optimising pricing capabilities whilst returning us back to higher quotability levels.

"In addition to these near-term actions, we are currently running a comprehensive strategy review of the significant opportunities we see to deliver higher returns. We will outline the details of our refreshed strategy at a capital markets day in July, as well as update on the progress we have made on the near-term initiatives.

"With the right strategy in place and determined actions, I am confident that we can deliver run-rate annualised cost savings of at least £100 million by the end of 2025¹ and a net insurance margin, normalised for weather, of 13% in 2026."

Financial summary

–    Stable policy count overall as the introduction of over 700,000 new Motability customers offset lower policies elsewhere primarily in Motor and associated Rescue.

–    Gross written premium and associated fees increased by 27.1% during 2023, with 46.2% growth in the second half.

–    Net insurance margin of minus 8.3% was impacted by the continued earn through of Motor policies written during 2022 and first half of 2023. Outside of Motor, the Group delivered a good result and a net insurance margin of 12.2%.

–    In Motor, premium rate increases contributed to a 5.8 percentage point improvement in the current year net insurance claims ratio in the second half of 2023. Motor policies written since August estimated to be in line with the Group’s ambition of a net insurance margin of above 10%.

–    Operating loss from ongoing operations of £189.5 million in 2023, compared to a loss of £6.4 million in 2022, with the adverse movement in the net insurance margin partially offset by an increase in investment income. The proceeds of the sale of the Group’s brokered commercial business contributed to a profit before tax of £277.4 million, up from a loss before tax of £301.8 million in 2022.

–    The Group’s solvency capital ratio at the end of 2023 improved to 201%, following significant management action and benefiting from the sale of the brokered commercial business. A dividend of 4.0 pence per share is proposed, with the solvency capital ratio, post-dividend, equal to 197%.

Operational highlights and improvement plan

We have been conducting a review to identify opportunities across the value chain. Substantial progress has been made and we can now see significant opportunity to remove at least £100 million of costs by the end of 2025 on a run-rate annualised basis1, and are targeting a new net insurance margin, normalised for weather, of 13% in 2026.

–    Reduce our cost base – We launched a fully integrated digital claims service during 2023, improving customer choice and speed when registering motor claims online. However, there remains a substantial cost opportunity through further improvements in digital capability, reduced technology costs and removing complexity across the Group. We target at least £100 million of run-rate annualised cost savings by the end of 20251.

–    Improve claims performance – During 2023 we continued to expand our vertically integrated claims management with the acquisition of our 23rd accident repair centre, enabling us to increase our in-house capacity, thereby reducing claims costs. We have now launched a claims transformation, which will initially focus on optimising our garage network and building on counter fraud efforts.

–    Optimise pricing capability – In 2023 we upgraded our core pricing models and expanded our product offering in Motor with the launch of new product tiers in Direct Line and Darwin together with the acquisition of pay by mile insurer By Miles. In 2024 we will develop the next generation of technical pricing models and enrich these models with more internal and external data sources while enhancing fraud protection.

–    Broaden market coverage – We have considerable brand strength in Direct Line and Churchill. In 2024 we will improve Motor PCW quotability and create a clear customer segmentation strategy and value proposition across our brand portfolio.

We welcomed over 700,000 new customers through our partnership with Motability, which we expect to generate gross written premium of around £800 million per annum.

For further information, please contact:

This announcement contains inside information. The person responsible for arranging the release of this announcement on behalf of the Company is Neil Manser, Chief Financial Officer.

Notes:

1.    This statement includes a quantified financial benefits statement which has been reported on for the purposes of the Takeover Code (see Appendix C).

2.   Ongoing operations – the Group's ongoing operations result excludes the results of the brokered commercial business, that it sold to RSA Insurance Limited in 2023, and the Rescue and other personal lines partnerships that the Group first excluded from its 2022 results. Relevant prior-year data has been restated accordingly. See glossary for definitions and appendix A – Alternative Performance Measures for reconciliation to financial statement line items

3.   Estimates based on the Group’s Solvency II partial internal model.

4.   Prior period comparatives have been restated on transition to IFRS 17 'Insurance Contracts' and IFRS 9 'Financial Instruments'. See notes 1 and 21 for further details.

5.   See glossary for definitions and appendix A – Alternative Performance Measures for reconciliation to financial statement line items.

6.   In-force policies as at 31 December 2022 have been restated to remove 14,500 ongoing Commercial policies that were previously erroneously included in the reported amounts.

Download preliminary results here