Carole Nash up for sale.

[Lutin]

Apparently, Groupama is after ditching all its UK assets including Carole Nash Insurance. Not sure if this will affect Carole Nash's operations or whether their Irish operations will be affected either.

[Whealie]

I spoke to the boss of Groupama on Thursday - François-Xavier Boisseau (known even to his staff as FXB). He won't say if the company is up for sale whole or if the broking bits will be sold off separately. Carole Nash are not commenting, referring me back to FXB.

I should point out that the sale is because of the Greek debt crisis. Groupama in France is a mutual insurer and thought it had taken sensible steps by having a lot of AAA-rated government bonds as investments. The sovereign debt crisis has hit it hard.

It tried to sell its UK business ten years ago and gave up after failing to get a decent price for it. Mind you then it had had ten years of making a loss. Since then it has turned the business around. Ironically it doesn't now want to sell the UK business but has to because it is profitable and therefore likely to get the best price to help pay off its other debts.

So, panic not. The talk is of big insurers and big brokers being interested, though FXB would not confirm or deny any speculation.