As I see it, mainly because of rationalisation over the last 20 years or so, there are a lot less insurance companies in Australia than there used to be and the industry has lost a lot of experienced people over the years. What FIG are doing takes significant experience and expertise.
Most people currently in the industry, have relevant experience in one specific distribution channel and hardly any have had the experience that FIG management has had across all distribution channels.
It has taken them 9 years from scratch to get to this level of success in direct insurance, and this space has much growth opportunity. They have recently expanded into the advisor space through Spectrum. Through Finsure, they are now expanding into the mortgage broker distributed insurance space where they previously built a company from scratch. That company is now the dominant player in that space which has plenty of opportunity to tap into.
I see it that they are building a moat, which won't be easily penetrated......even for anyone with the motivation to do so. And it requires an unbelievable amount of motivation to start any insurance company from scratch, something that FIG management obviously seems to have. And insurance is not a particularly sexy industry!
FIG Price at posting:
40.0¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held