The directors of one of the country’s largest health insurers, Laya Healthcare, last year shared in a pay bonanza of €11.94m.
That is disclosed in new accounts for Laya Healthcare Ltd, which show that the bulk of the €11.94m remuneration to directors arose in “transaction/sale related costs” from the €650m sale of Laya Healthcare to French headquartered Axa in October of last year.
The accounts show that directors received remuneration of €11.94m — made up of salaries, fees, pension contributions, and transaction/sale-related costs to Axa.
The filings show that directors shared pay and transaction/sale-related costs of €11.79m, though no breakdown is provided along with fees of €70,000 and pension contributions of €77,777.
The overall pay of €11.94m to directors is six times the €1.9m directors’ pay package for 2022.
Seven directors served during the year for the company, including managing director Dónal Clancy.
Last month, Laya Healthcare hiked its premiums on average by 6.5%. It stated that the price rise was needed to address the increased demand for healthcare services and rising costs.
The hike followed a 7% price increase in April and the insurer increased premium rates twice last year — in October and April.
The transaction/sale-related costs to directors was part of an overall €15.1m bill in transactional costs to Axa last year.
The €15.1m cost was the chief factor behind pre-tax profits at Laya Healthcare Ltd tumbling by 75% last year from €36.55m to €9m.
The company incurred the drop in profits as revenues decreased from €104m to €100.5m.
Staff costs rose by 17% from €38.28m to €44.74m as numbers employed, including directors, increased by 47 — from 617 to 664.
The directors state there were a number of factors contributing to the profitable results, including Laya Healthcare’s continued growth within the Irish market.
They state that this saw the company’s membership base “growing to over 696,000 members in 2023” — up from 676,000 in 2022.
They add that the health and wellness services “also saw growth during the year through the expansion of products and offerings to both our corporate and individual members”.
Laya Healthcare last year paid out €25m in dividends to its AIG subsidiary, Corebridge Financial, before the sale to Axa, and this followed a dividend payout of €20m. The profit last year takes account of non-cash depreciation costs of €4.8m.
At the end of December last, the firm’s accumulated profits totalled €40.96m. The company’s cash funds decreased to €96.3m. The cash funds were made up of Laya Healthcare cash balances of €44.29m and restricted cash of €52m that was held on behalf of the underwriter.