Arron Banks, chief executive of Bristol-based specialist internet insurance broker Brightside, today announced the company's ninth successive record year of growth with a 35% rise in pre-tax profits, a 39% rise in earnings per share and 31% growth in policy numbers.
He said: "We have made great strides towards our goal of becoming a become a major distributor in the UK insurance market with further development of the eCar panel, continued growth in our ancillary businesses and the acquisition of eSystems and eDevelopment which further add to the suite of broking assets held by the group to create a fully integrated specialist
insurance broking model. The board of Brightside views the prospects for 2012 with confidence."
Financial highlights include a 21.5% rise in revenue from £66.2m to £80.4m, pre-tax profits up from £10.1m to £13.6m with EBITDA before exceptional other income and share based payments charges increasing from £13.5m to £18.5m, up 37.0%.
Operationally, Brightside's insurance policy sales rose 30.7% from 339,916 to to 444,189 while lead generation was up 41.4% to 311,251 while on balance sheet premium finance funding of new loans increased from £67.6m to £117.2m, up 73.4%. The medical reporting business increased the number of instructions received to 37,431, up 4.2%.
Earlier this year the group – the 2011 West of England Business of the Year – paid MMT Centre Investment Limited £5m for the former Aust motorway services area overlooking the first Severn Bridge, the corporate headquarters it moved into five years ago.
Brightside also acquired on December 31 the on‑line system currently used to distribute and administer its suite of on‑line eInsurance products and the software house responsible for the development and maintenance of the on‑line system. The integration of the software house remains on‑going, said Mr Banks, and since the on‑line platform itself was already being utilised by the group the system did not require any further integration or policy migration upon acquisition.
