Allianz Locked Up RAA Insurance for Twenty Years

Allianz Australia completed its $642 million purchase of RAA’s general insurance business on 1 July 2025 and locked a 20-year exclusive right to the club’s home and motor book. The policies still carry the RAA badge. A new Allianz entity now prices them, pays the claims, and carries the risk.

South Australia’s motoring club spent more than a century insuring its own members. The close sits beside a Queensland sale to IAG the same winter, and a Western Australian bid the competition watchdog later blocked.

Allianz Closed the RAA Book on 1 July 2025

Allianz announced a gross AUD$642 million partnership on 2 December 2024, including excess capital and subject to completion adjustments. The buyer took RAA Insurance Holdings Limited and its underwriting subsidiary, then signed a 20-year exclusive distribution agreement for home and motor. Travel cover stayed out. Roadside assistance stayed with the club.

Managing director Richard Feledy said Allianz was “strongly drawn to partner with RAA due to their compelling strategy and platform for growth, the underlying quality of the business, and the relative stability and profitability of the insurance market in South Australia.” RAA chief executive Nick Reade said it had become “increasingly difficult to shield our members from the global challenges in the insurance industry.”

THE DEAL CALENDAR

1. 2 December 2024: Allianz and RAA announce the purchase and the 20-year home and motor distribution term.
2. 31 January 2025: The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission opens an informal review.
3. 12 June 2025: After 94 review days, the ACCC says it will not oppose the deal; APRA also clears it.
4. 1 July 2025: Allianz Australia Insurance Limited takes RAA Insurance Limited, welcomes around 300 staff, and starts underwriting under the RAA brand.

On completion day Allianz said the acquired company had been renamed Allianz South Australia Insurance Ltd, or Allianz SA. Feledy called the pairing “two organisations with shared values.” Reade told members the club was “keeping the trusted RAA brand, award winning products and strong local presence right here in South Australia.”

Members Still Buy Cover With an RAA Badge

RAA still owns the brand, the shops, the call centres, and the member file. Allianz SA underwrites home and motor, sets product and price, and runs claims. Ben Owen, RAA’s chief strategy officer and general manager for energy and insurance, put the split in plain terms when the deal was signed: RAA keeps “brand, marketing, advocacy, and distribution,” and Allianz takes “underwriting, product, pricing, and claims.”

The original plan in December 2024 was to move about 270 Adelaide insurance staff. On 1 July 2025 Allianz said it had welcomed around 300 RAA employees. Members were told they would still speak to a South Australian on the phone or in a branch. Policyholders stay RAA members. Allianz Australia, which says it already serves more than 4 million policyholders, is now the capital behind those SA policies.

WHAT MOVED AND WHAT STAYED

• Moved to Allianz SA: Underwriting of RAA home and motor policies, product design, pricing, and claims handling.
• Stayed with RAA: The RAA brand, marketing, branch and call-centre distribution, roadside assistance, and RAA Travel.
• Left out of the sale: Travel insurance, and the membership club itself.
• Staff at close: Around 300 RAA insurance employees joined Allianz’s Adelaide team.

The club’s own member note says the partnership “will not change your existing insurance premium” and includes pricing protections in line with market averages for later renewals. Discounts on current policies stay in place, and a claim already open was to run as usual. Information has to be shared with Allianz so it can administer the cover.

What the 20-Year Distribution Deal Locks In

The cash number is the headline. The term is the asset. For two decades RAA can sell home and motor only as Allianz-underwritten, RAA-branded cover. Allianz pays for exclusive access to a state motoring franchise that still looks local at the counter.

Reade later spelled out the operating model for members: “RAA will have the control over our brand, the marketing, the distribution and service. Allianz will be responsible for product pricing, claims and underwriting.” Chair Kathy Gramp and Reade wrote in the 2024-25 annual report that Murray River floods in 2022-23 had drawn down capital reserves, and that the club chose the partnership “to de-risk RAA from further capital risk.”

RAA also told members this is not its first use of an outside underwriter. For about 80 of its 100 years in insurance, the club had already worked with other providers. What changed on 1 July 2025 is the legal home of the book: the old RAA Insurance Limited is now an Allianz company, and the exclusive pipe runs for 20 years.

Queensland Sold First, Western Australia Did Not

NRMA began writing member insurance in 1925, demutualised in 2000, and became Insurance Australia Group in 2002. IAG has held a long Victorian joint venture with RACV since 1999. The 2025 wave was different. State clubs sold the underwriting company, kept the badge, and leased the member channel to a national balance sheet.

IAG completed the acquisition of RACQ Insurance on 1 September 2025. It took about 90 percent of the Queensland underwriter, with an option on the rest in two years, paid $855 million including a 25-year exclusive alliance, and welcomed about 840 staff. IAG said the book would add about $1.3 billion of gross written premium and reach RACQ’s 1.7 million members. Nick Hawkins, IAG’s managing director and chief executive, said Queenslanders would keep the same local teams and then move onto IAG’s claims systems.

THREE CLUB BOOKS, THREE OUTCOMES

The ACCC opposed IAG’s bid for RAC Insurance on 11 December 2025. Chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb said the combination would have given IAG about 55 to 65 percent of WA motor insurance and about 50 to 60 percent of home and contents, and “would eliminate the significant competition between IAG and RACI.” IAG said it would seek a fresh assessment under the new merger rules. The SA file went through because the watchdog judged RAA a weakening competitor and Allianz a smaller force in that state than IAG is in the west.

The Watchdog Called RAA Less Competitive

On 12 June 2025 the ACCC said it would not oppose the proposed acquisition. Commissioner Dr Philip Williams said the review tested how close Allianz and RAA Insurance already were, and how the club would have fared on its own. The products overlap in South Australian home, contents, and motor. RAA Insurance sold only in that state, through its own branches, call centres, and website.

While RAAI has a strong brand reputation associated with its motoring club and membership offering, we found that competition in relation to price and coverage in South Australia is being driven predominantly by other insurers, including Suncorp through its AAMI brand, IAG, Auto & General and Youi.

Dr Philip Williams, ACCC Commissioner, 12 June 2025 media release

Williams said Suncorp and IAG, “the two largest insurers in Australia,” would still constrain Allianz in South Australia, and that Budget Direct (Auto & General) and Youi would keep competing on price. The commission also found RAA Insurance was “facing specific challenges” from extreme weather, reinsurance, and regulatory costs, “meaning that it is likely to be less competitive than it has been in recent years.” It said the deal was unlikely to let Allianz squeeze smash repair, windscreen, or building repair terms in the state.

Darrell Jacobs, chief executive of the Motor Trade Association of South Australia and Northern Territory, rejected that repair finding. He said the clearance “would put crippling pressure” on independent and family-run shops, called it “a dark day for South Australian motorists and small businesses, with local member motor-club insurance on death’s door,” and added: “RAA Insurance is now as local as lederhosen.” Independent shops in Adelaide read the file as the loss of a local book they could still bargain with, even as members keep walking into an RAA store.

$276.1 Million Landed on RAA’s Books

RAA’s 2024-25 annual report records profit after tax of $276.1 million, against $2.1 million a year earlier. Profit from the discontinued insurance operation, net of tax, was $294.0 million. Continuing operations, the roadside and other club businesses, posted revenue of $263.6 million, up from $229.0 million, and still ran at an operating loss. RAA said underlying profit before tax, stripping the one-off, rose to $24.3 million from $4.1 million, and that it added about 15,000 members to reach 834,000 by year end. At close the two groups had spoken of more than 830,000 members; the December 2024 announcement used 825,000.

Reade said that after tax and expenses the club would retain around $450 million in cash, to be invested while members were asked how to use some of it. In the same year RAA converted to a company limited by guarantee. Specified executives, a group the report puts at $7.73 million against $5.48 million a year earlier, were paid bonuses tied to the sale. Reade called those incentives modest by industry standards and said staff had worked around the clock for 12 months to finish the deal.

THE SA BOOK AFTER THE SALE

• Gross price: $642 million, including excess capital and subject to completion adjustments.
• Cash kept: About $450 million after tax and expenses, per Nick Reade.
• FY25 profit: $276.1 million after tax, against $2.1 million the year before.
• Year-end members: 834,000, after about 15,000 joined during the year.

Allianz Group’s 2025 accounts booked identifiable assets of €367 million and liabilities of €174 million on the Australian close, and recognised €155 million of goodwill in its Asia-Pacific property-casualty unit. Parent capital also went into Allianz Australia. Ratings commentary in September 2026 said the RAA purchase had made Allianz Australia the country’s third-largest property and casualty insurer, behind Suncorp and IAG, without eroding capital at the 99.95 percent confidence level S&P uses.

The member still buys an RAA-branded policy from a South Australian at a club counter. Allianz SA carries the risk, and the exclusive distribution term has years left to run.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who Underwrites RAA Home and Motor Insurance Now?

Allianz South Australia Insurance Ltd, the company formerly called RAA Insurance Limited, underwrites RAA-branded home and motor policies. APRA’s authorised general-insurance list updated on 23 September 2026 still names that entity as Allianz South Australia Insurance Limited (formerly RAA Insurance Limited), so the old licence sits inside the Allianz group rather than the club.

Did the Allianz Deal Include Roadside Assistance or Travel?

No. The ACCC record states the purchase excluded RAA’s membership business, including roadside assistance, and Allianz’s own notices carved travel out of the underwriting transfer. RAA Travel remains with the club, and RAA says it is still a member-based organisation even though it no longer carries home and motor risk.

How Long Does the Exclusive Distribution Agreement Run?

Twenty years from 1 July 2025, which takes the exclusive home and motor term through 1 July 2045 unless the parties later change it. Allianz Group’s 2025 accounts treat that distribution right as part of the same close that produced €155 million of goodwill.

Will RAA Insurance Premiums Rise Because of the Partnership?

RAA told members the partnership itself would not change an existing premium, and that renewal increases are meant to track market averages under a pricing-protection clause. It also said discounts stay on current policies, while cover and price can still change at renewal the way they always could, so the clause is a market-average cap rather than a freeze.

How Does the RAA Sale Compare With IAG’s RACQ Deal?

IAG paid $855 million for about 90 percent of RACQ Insurance, with an option to buy the remaining 10 percent in two years, and signed a 25-year exclusive alliance that closed on 1 September 2025. That Queensland book was larger on premium (about $1.3 billion of gross written premium) and staff (about 840 people), and the term is five years longer than RAA’s 20-year Allianz pipe.