RSA Insurance Group plc

The group’s sure-footed negotiation of the trading environment last year was in marked contrast to the struggles and crises experienced by an earlier incarnation in the late 1990s and early years of this decade, the venerable but constantly beleaguered, Royal & SunAlliance, the oldest insurance company in the UK. RSA, which celebrated its 250th birthday in 2004, is now a much more streamlined entity after one of the most intensive restructurings in the history of the insurance industry which included disposing of its life insurance operations, exiting a number of loss making non-life markets, most notably the US market where among other challenges it was exposed to asbestos liabilities as a result of business written years earlier by subsidiaries, and a change in senior management. This radical transformation, together with the much more intense focus on bottom line issues, was perfectly symbolised three years ago when the group’s previous name, with all its historical layers and associations, was reduced to just three initials, RSA

It is not immediately obvious from the 6.7% reduction in the net profit result of British non-life insurance group RSA from £628.0mn in 2007 to £586.0mn in 2008, but despite the much tougher trading and investment market conditions the group greatly improved its performance in almost all areas of the business.