Admiral Group plc (ADM) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Okay, I think we're ready. So good afternoon. Welcome to Admiral's 2024 Annual General Meeting. It's just shortly after 1:30 p.m. and the quorum required by Article 58.1 of the company's Articles of Association are that 2 members personally present and entitled to vote is met, and therefore, I declare the meeting open. This is my first AGM as Chair, having succeeded Annette Court immediately after last year's AGM. I'd just like to thank Annette for her wide and substantial contributions to the Admiral Board over many years. During my first year, I thoroughly enjoyed visiting all areas of the business, and I've met a wide cross-section of our Admiral colleagues, who've consistently impressed me with their knowledge, their conscientious and enthusiasm for our customers and the business. In October 2023, we welcomed Fiona Muldoon as a Non-Executive Director to the Board, and will be asking shareholders to approve this appointment at the AGM. Fiona brings a huge amount of relevant experience from her 30 years in the insurance industry, and we all believe that Fiona is a valuable addition to the Board. Unfortunately, Fiona can't be with us in person today and along with Bill Roberts, is joining us virtually. I will not introduce Fiona or all the other members of the Board individually as biographies of all the directors can be found at the end of the AGM notice and in the 2023 report and accounts on Pages 118 to 123. Copies of the Directors' current service agreements as well as copies of current letters of appointment to which Non-Executive Directors are party are available for inspection at the rear of this room together with a copy of the current Articles of Association. The notice convening this meeting was placed on our website together with the company's Annual Report and accounts for the year ending the 31st December 2023. And subsequently, after printing was sent out from the 22nd of March 2024 to all those shareholders who elected to receive paper copies. Accordingly, the requisite notice of meeting has been given, and I should like with your permission, to take the notice as read. This year we have arranged the Annual General Meeting to be live streamed for our shareholders and shareholders have been invited to dial in to the AGM and listen to proceedings and ask questions if they so wish. The Chair of the Remuneration Committee, Evelyn Bourke, the Chair of the Audit Committee, Karen Green and the Chair of the Risk Committee, Andy Crossley, are present and available to answer any questions you may have. Before turning to the main business of the meeting then, I would therefore like to dedicate a few minutes to asking any questions you may have. Firstly, from shareholders who are attending the meeting in person. I believe we have one. Yes, Hanna?

My name is Hanna, and I'm asking a question as a proxy of ShareAction, and its Good Work, investor coalition, a group of institutional investors with more than $6.6 trillion in assets under management. As you may know, ShareAction is a charity that campaigns for responsible investment to tackle social and environmental issues. For the last 2 years, ShareAction has been attending your AGMs to ask what the Board's position is on ethnicity pay gap reporting, and we were really delighted that you reported your ethnicity pay gap for the first time ever last year. We're really pleased that you've continued to do this, this year and that you're committed to increasing ethnicity representation across your entire business. However, government guidelines and the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development recommend that pay gap data be disaggregated according to the Office of National Statistics categories on ethnicity. This would help to [ quote ] the exact location and causation of gaps. Several FTSE 100 financial sector companies are already doing this, such as Barclays, HSBC and Lloyds Banking Group. So can I ask the Board if it plans to disaggregate its ethnicity data according to the ONS categories and join its peers? Additionally, we've requested whether Admiral willing to meet with ShareAction and the Good Work investor coalition to discuss this issue twice, yet disappointingly, this has not happened. It's also worth noting, we've been engaging 33 companies on this topic and Admiral is the only company we've not yet met. So we would appreciate it if we could receive the contact information of the most suitable person to arrange a follow-up meeting.

Okay, well thank you for the question. I mean I think Admiral clearly continues to be a company that supports values and inclusive work environment. And we continue to evolve our employee proposition. So we remain a great place to work for everybody. And we recently published our 2023 Ethnicity Pay Gap, and it can be found on our website. So what that shows is, colleagues with an ethnically diverse background are on average paid more than their counterparts at Admiral. This reflects the fact we've got a higher proportion of colleagues from ethnically diverse backgrounds who work in functions, which tend to attract higher salaries such as IT, data and technology. We are committed to breaking down further barriers, and we do believe in career progression for all. So we will look to extend our pay gap analysis potentially to the other demographics you mentioned, and at a more granular level. However, this would require disclosure from our colleagues, which is not something that's currently mandatory, as you know. So we'll need to do a bit of work on it. As regards to the meeting, I'm not sure we're aware that had been attempt, but I think Dan, our Company Secretary, will meet you after this to make sure we've got you connected with the right people to have it -- to discuss any experience you've got with other companies in making that happen.

[ Ildar Davletshin ] I'm a private shareholder. And I should say, I actually send my questions and I did receive questions from the IR team very kindly. So I'm very appreciating that. But if I may just ask 2, maybe to management. So my first question is, I mean the last few years have been anything but normal in terms of inflation and supply chain. So -- and I think you did comment a few times during the conference calls and presentations. Could you just maybe share your latest thoughts or what you see in the market in terms of inflation, pricing competitors? And because a lot of us are really focused on dividends, and that is this -- the income that you generate the source of dividends. So where do you see this maybe stabilizing or growing in the next 2 or 3 years? Like is the most recent performance, was it kind of a normal sustainable level or we should make some adjustment? That's question number one. Hopefully, it's not too long. And the second, just on your business overall. So you started very successfully as a auto insurer, but you've been diversifying into different countries and lines of businesses. So where do you see within your portfolio the most promising areas maybe in terms of growth, in terms of returns, the businesses that you are most excited about for the next 5 years and which we, as shareholders, should benefit from if you invest there?

Could I maybe ask Geraint to -- the first answer -- first to those. Yes, any comments on the second part?

Yes. We would certainly agree with your observations of the market over the past couple of years, been very tough time to be a car insurer both in the U.K. and the markets outside the U.K. On the current situation, we -- our view is that the pace of inflation and the cost of claims will start to ease this year, but we'd still expect it to run at above normal levels. But we've seen an almost unprecedented response in the market over the last 12 or 18 months in terms of market prices, which have gone up, as you know, substantially. And our expectation for 2024 is that some competitors will still increase prices. Others might have got to positions where they're comfortable with their level of profitability and might not increase prices. And indeed, we see the obvious competitor going through small reductions in premiums as well. So we'd expect slightly different market conditions in '24, easing inflation but still elevated. Some competitors continue to increase prices, but maybe some reducing their prices. Admiral is comfortable with the combined ratio that we're currently writing business at. We became more competitive in the second half of 2023, sitting towards the end of the year. And so we started to grow the business again at that point. And we've continued that through into the first part of 2024. And what happens for the rest of the year, clearly influenced by competitors and what we see in our own portfolio and what we do with our rates. But we don't expect to move our pricing significantly in the very near term, and we'd expect to continue to grow in the U.K. On the second -- again, first question -- on the second question, whenever we get asked about which businesses we're most excited about, refuse to answer the question because it implies there are businesses we're not excited about, I think that's a bit harsh. So maybe this answer will be slightly unsatisfactory, but we believe all our businesses outside the main U.K. car business will be successful and will be important parts of the Admiral Group in future, growing profitable, sustainable and attractive ROE. It's clearly fair to say that some of them are more established and more successful at this point than others. And maybe, for example, ConTe, our Italian car insurance business, which has operated since 2008, has been consistently profitable for more than a decade and our U.K. household insurance business, which is closing in on 2 million policies. And with the acquisition of the more than renewal rights, which will start shortly. We expect to close in on 10% or so market share in that business. And generally, with the exception of extremely bad weather years, that business is also consistently and sustainably profitable. Others are newer or in more challenging markets. But nonetheless, we operate all our businesses -- as if there are going to be successful long-term parts of the group, maybe with the exception of our U.S. auto business, which we've spoken about, I believe.

Are there any other questions from the room or any online participants that want to ask a question?

[Operator Instructions] There are no questions from the phones at this time.

So thank you for your questions. We'll now move on to the business of the meeting. In accordance with best practice and as stated in the notice of this meeting, I am exercising the authority contained in the company's Articles of Association, to call for a poll to be taken on the resolutions put to the meeting. In the interest of efficiency, and again, with your permission, I will not read the resolutions out, but each of them is set out clearly on Pages 6 to 8 in the notice. Resolutions 1 to 19 are proposed as ordinary resolutions. This means that for each of those resolutions to be passed, more than half of the votes cast must be in favor of the resolution. Whilst resolutions 20 to 23 are proposed as special resolutions, and for each of those resolutions to be passed, at least 3/4 of the votes cast must be in favor of the resolution. I propose resolutions 1 to 4 and 6 to 23 as set out on Pages 6 to 8 of the notice. As usual, a separate resolution is proposed in respect of the election or reelection of each director. Resolution 5 concerns my own reelection, and I've asked Justine Roberts, our Senior Independent Director, to propose that resolution. I will now hand the chair of the meeting to Justine for that purpose.

Thank you, Mike. I propose the reelection of Mike Rogers as the Director of the company as set out in Resolution 5 on Page 6 of the notice. I will now hand the chair back to Mike.

Thanks. Thank you, Justine. Many shareholders have sent in proxy appointing me to vote on their behalf. I will vote as they have instructed me. If they've given me direct discretion is how to vote, I should be voting on their behalf in favor of the resolution concerned. I will now put all resolutions to vote by poll. Please indicate on your poll card how you wish to vote. The poll will close 10 minutes after -- the poll will close 10 minutes after the close of this meeting. If you've not yet completed your poll card, please do so now and hand it to the registrar. [Voting]

The results of the vote of the meeting and the number of proxy votes cast for and against together with a number of votes actively withheld in respect of each of the resolutions proposed at this meeting will be announced for our regulatory information service and also placed on the company's website, www.admiralgroup.co.uk as soon as it's practically possible following the closure of the meeting. I can confirm that based on the proxy votes that have already been cast prior to the meeting, there are material majorities in favor of each of the resolutions that have been proposed. That now concludes the formal business of the Annual General Meeting. Thank you for your attendance, and I declare the meeting closed. Safe travels.