Page 131 - Be Reasonable – Do It My Way , Peter E. Daly AM, My Story

CHAPTER 12 – AEGIS INSURANCE CO LTD
Chapter 12 – Aegis Insurance Co Ltd
The Merger Made in Heaven
In 1977 L&G and Norwich Union merged their operations in South Africa to form Aegis Insurance Co Ltd. I have seen a lot of mergers in my time both first hand and at a distance and I have to say that very few were as successful as this original merger to form Aegis. Perhaps the one that came closest was the merger between QBE and Mercantile Mutual in Australia.
It was a straight 50-50 deal (although L&G had to subscribe a lot of money).
The respective CEOs of the two companies; Sandy Rawlinson and John Bull were both enthusiastic about moving into a general insurance specialisation no longer having to work for Life assurance parents. They therefore supported the initiative in representations to their shareholders.
What was interesting was that the merger was not predicated on cost savings or staff reductions. Indeed, Aegis kept all of the previous staff. Each company staff ran side-by-side with the other both in head office and in the branches. Outside of Johannesburg, the branches alternated between Norwich Union Manager and L&G Assistant Manager and vice versa. In Johannesburg which was the major market, two branches were established with the same management structure approach with one concentrating on Broker business and the other on personal lines business.
The only problem was at Head Office. John Bull was the General Manager, Sandy Rawlinson was the Deputy General Manager and we had our three Assistant General Managers; Peter Moss in charge of underwriting and then Basil Fussell and myself. Basil who was
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