Insurer RSA faces sale of ‘family silver’

Troubled insurer RSA may have to sell its best assets, leaving it concentrated in slow-growing markets such as its British home patch, to raise up to £1bn (€1.15bn) and safeguard its credit ratings.

RSA said on Friday that it needed to boost capital and may have to cut its dividend following three profit warnings and a move to strengthen reserves at its Irish business, where it suspects accounting irregularities.

Some analysts estimate Britain’s biggest non-life insurer, which owns the More Than brand, may need to raise as much as £1bn.