QBE Insurance : announces sale of Australian Agency Businesses

Level 27, 8 Chifley Square, SYDNEY NSW 2000 Australia

GPO Box 82, Sydney NSW 2001

telephone + 612 9375 4444 • facsimile + 612 9231 6104

www.qbe.com
16 February 2015
The Manager
Market Announcements Office
ASX Limited
Level 4
Exchange Centre
20 Bridge Street, SYDNEY NSW 2000

Please find attached an announcement for release to the market. Yours faithfully

Peter Horton

16 February 2015

QBE today announces that it has entered into an agreement with Steadfast Group Limited (Steadfast) for the sale of 100% of QBE Australian & New Zealand Operations' Australian agency businesses CHU Underwriting Agencies Pty Limited (CHU), Corporate Underwriting Agencies Pty Limited (CUA) (also known as Body Corporate Brokers or BCB) and Underwriting Agencies of Australia Pty Limited (UAA).
The up-front cash consideration is A$290 million and represents an EBITDA multiple of approximately 8x. The final consideration is subject to an earn out based on 2015 and 2016 performance relative to 2014, and will fall within the range of A$232 million to A$348 million.
QBE Group CEO John Neal said "We are pleased to progress another important step of our capital plan with the sale of the Australian agency businesses at a price we consider to be attractive for our shareholders."
"An important element of the sale is the 10 year exclusive distribution agreement we have entered into with Steadfast to retain the underwriting business provided by the agencies. We look forward to continuing to work closely with Steadfast and CHU, CUA and UAA to further grow our program business."
The sale is expected to complete in late March 2015. For further information, please contact:

Group Head of Investor Relations
Tony Jackson
Tel: +61 2 9375 4364 investor.relations@qbe.com

ABN 28 008 485 014
Level 27, 8 Chifley Square
SYDNEY NSW 2000
Australia
www.qbe.com

Tel: +61 (2) 8306 4244
Cell: +61 (0) 410 559 184

QBE Insurance Group Limited is listed on the Australian Securities Exchange, is recognised as one of the top 20 global insurance and reinsurance companies as measured by net earned premium and has operations in 38 countries.

distributed by