SHARES in motor insurer esure have soared following reports the firm's biggest stakeholder is looking to sell.
Sir Peter Wood, who owns a 30.7 per cent controlling position, has been in talks with would-be buyers in a move that could trigger a full-blown sale of the business, according to the Sunday Times.
Shares rose more than six per cent as traders reacted to the speculation.
Sir Peter is reported to have held "informal" discussions over a possible sale, with an eye to having a deal in place next month.
An American insurance company is seen as the most likely buyer for the 71-year-old's portion, despite interest from private equity firms, the report suggests.
The firm, which has a market capitalisation of £1.2 billion, saw price comparison site Gocompare demerge from the company and list on the stock market on November 3 last year.
Esure, which owns brands such as Sheilas' Wheels, announced in August that first-half profits had surged off the back of rising prices and higher demand for its products.
The firm said that pre-tax profits rose 44.6 per cent to £45.1 million in the six months to June 30.
Gross written premiums grew 22.8 per cent to £393.3m in the period as boss Stuart Vann hailed a "great start to 2017".
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here