BGL Group
'BGL Group is a financial services company based in Orton Southgate, Peterborough, England. It is a digital distributor of insurance and household financial services, owning brands such as Comparethemarket. The company is part of the BHL global group, which also includes Telesure Investment Holdings in South Africa.
Originally established as an underwriter, BGL later divested its underwriting arm to focus on price comparison and digital distribution. Its main lines of business historically included vehicle and home insurance, alongside supplementary products such as breakdown cover and legal protection.
History
The company was founded in the UK in 1992 by South African entrepreneur Douw Steyn as the Budget Insurance Company, an underwriter. Steyn had previously established Auto & General Insurance in South Africa in 1985, pioneering a model of selling insurance directly over the telephone. The UK operation was established to replicate this direct-to-consumer model.In 1997, Budget Insurance Services Limited was founded. The following year, the company ceased its own underwriting operations to become an intermediary, marketing policies underwritten by a panel of third-party insurers.
In 1998, Telesure Investment Holdings, was established to house Auto&General and other insurance brands to come.
In 1999, the group acquired Arnott Century and rebranded to Budget Retail. Further acquisitions followed, including Dial Direct and Bennetts in 2001.
In 2002, the group launched an affinity business called Junction, which managed insurance products for partners such as Post Office, M&S Money, and Bradford & Bingley.
In 2003, the company launched its own uninsured loss recovery business, ACM ULR, and in the same year it ran a PR and marketing campaign for Bennetts, helping to establish the bike insurer as a leading brand in the United Kingdom market. In 2004, Budget was noted as providing the most competitive home insurance, and the cheapest motor insurance cover.
The company opened its Cape Town Contact Centre in 2004, set up Comparethemarket.com as a complementary service in 2005, and sold Budget Retail in 2006. In July 2007 the company changed its name to BGL Group, launching an eco-friendly car insurance site, ibuyeco.co.uk, and relaunching the comparethemarket.com insurance price comparison site.. Along with this South Africa's first comparison website was launched Hippo.co.za that compares insurance and other personal finance products from a range of South African brands. Before Hippo.co.za, consumers had to call around for hours trying to find the cheapest quote to suit their needs. This was a market changer for the South African market.
The year 2009 saw the creation of comparethemeerkat.com – online meerkat comparison website as part of a spoof advertising campaign featuring a CGI meerkat character named Aleksandr Orlov. French price comparison sites LesFurets.com and CreditMieux.com were acquired in 2010, and Dutch site Verzekeringssite.nl was acquired in 2012. The latter was rebranded as hoyhoy.nl in 2014.
In 2013, BGL group launched Beagle Street, the first online-only life insurer in the UK. In 2022 Beagle Street was acquired by OneFamily.
In 2015, Bennetts was sold to Saga Group.
The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board acquired a 30% stake in BGL in November 2017 for £675 million.
In January 2022, BGL sold its insurance business to Markerstudy, leaving Comparethemarket as its primary remaining business. BGL was advised by Dentons on the transaction.
The BGL Group, part of the greater TIH have subsequently grown their portfolio of sites across the globe which now include, Compare the Market Australia, LesFurets.com in France, Koalay and Hesapkurdu in Turkey, Hoyhoy in Holland.
Today
The group's main company name is BISL Limited, which was founded in 1996 – trading under the names of Budget, Dial Direct, Bennetts, Junction, ACM ULR, Fusion.In 2013 the FSA intervened and forced BISL to change its policy cancellation terms, as a result of which BISL stated: "BISL has agreed to change the cancellation terms in its policies. This is because we believe the original terms were confusing and unfair".
The BGL Group employs 2,852 staff across the UK with sales of £714 million and profits of £172 million to the end of June 2019.