Admiral Group PLC's (LON:ADM) chief executive officer (CEO), David Stevens, is to quit as boss of the car insurer.
At least he looks to be leaving on a high, with the company boasting of a record profit before tax of £526.1mln for 2019, up from £479.3mln the year before.
Group net revenue rose 7% to £1.35bn from £1.26bn in 2018 as the number of customers increased by 7% to 6.98mln from 6.51mln.
The full-year dividend has been hiked 11% to 140p from 2018's 126p.
“It was a year which saw profits exceed £500 million for the first time, on the back of substantial reserve releases. We crossed the million mark in household policyholders, and added 200,000 new car insurance customers overseas,” Stevens bragged.
Stevens, who co-founded Admiral in 1991, will not be stepping down as a director for another 12 months and will continue to work for the insurer in a part-time advisory capacity.
He will continue to receive his current annual salary of £416,048 (increasing to £426,449 with effect from 1 September 2020) plus pension contributions of around £4,000 per annum and “modest benefits” as outlined in the remuneration report for the twelve-month transition period. No further payments in relation to his services as a director of Admiral will be made after his retirement.
He will be replaced by Milena Mondini de Focatiis, who is currently the group’s head of UK and European Insurance. The CEO designate will join the board as an executive director in due course and will assume the CEO role after the transition period.
Shares in Admiral were up 1.0% at 2,202p in early deals.