Home insurance group Homeserve share prices have risen after it revealed plans to sell its emergency services business. Homeserve has put its Emergency Services operation up for sale after it failed to meet expectations.
The company said it had received a number of approaches for the division, which it had decided was non-core. Instead it wants to concentrate on its membership business, where it has 4.3m customers with 9.2m policies.
As part of a restructing associated with the proposed disposal, it has taken an impairment charge of £97m. Excluding this, its full-year profits climbed 13% to £96.1m.
The company also announced that Jonathan Simpson-Dent was stepping down as chief financial officer “to pursue other opportunities”, and will be replaced by Martin Bennett, finance director of the UK membership division.
The Emergency Services operation employs around 2,400 of Homeserve’s 5,500-strong workforce at bases in Beverley, Norwich and Nottingham. The decision to sell follows falling sales and profit figures at the business, which was intended to provide a range of tradesmen to handle repair services nationwide.
Homeserve now intends to concentrate on its core membership insurance business, based at Walsall.