Takeover ‘noise’ won’t distract Suncorp, Johnston says
Suncorp CEO Steve Johnston has called recent speculation about a takeover by a Japanese group “a lot of noise”.
He was speaking at an investor update this morning, when the Australian insurer cut its FY27 premium outlook.
The update marked Mr Johnston’s first public comment on the takeover speculation since Suncorp said on October 1 – following an Australian Securities Exchange price query – that it was not in discussions and had not received an offer.
Shares of Suncorp had risen sharply after media reports citing unnamed sources said Tokio Marine was keen on acquiring the Queensland-based insurer.
One article in The Australian last month said the parties were understood to have entered preliminary discussions and executives including CFO Jeremy Robson had made a trip to Tokyo.
“I think you know we read the newspapers with the same interest as I’m sure you do, and others do,” CEO Steve Johnston told an analyst who asked if there had been talks.
“I haven’t got much to add to that commentary other than the disclosures that we’ve made, which are pretty clear. I do sign off Jeremy’s travel requests, and I’ve not seen anything in Japan for quite a while, so I don’t know where that comes from.
“Look ... there’s a lot of noise around, but we’ve just got to keep our head down … and we don’t want the business to be distracted by any of that noise. So [the] disclosures speak for themselves. We’ve got a business to run, we’ve got an organic plan to deliver, and we’re just focused 100% on that.”
Suncorp says it now expects FY27 gross written premium growth of 3%, compared with 3%-5% flagged previously.
The revision was prompted by the loss of a “single large commercial contract” worth $125 million in GWP and weakness in the New Zealand dollar.
“The full impact of the commercial contract will be reflected in the first half, resulting in full-year GWP growth being weighted to the second half,” Suncorp said.
“There is no other change to the FY27 outlook previously provided and [underlying insurance trading ratio] margin is expected to remain in the top half of the 10%-12% range.”
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