GoCompare Founder Nets £44m In Esure Deal

The founder of GoCompare is in line for a £44m windfall after the business she started eight years ago was sold to car insurance firm esure.

Hayley Parsons will step down as chief executive of the price comparison site as a result of the £95m deal with esure to buy the half of GoCompare it does not already own.

The sale values the entrepreneur's remaining 23% stake in the business at almost £44m.

She set up Newport-based GoCompare in 2006 after leaving rival Confused.com and focused the website on the levels of cover provided by an insurance product rather than just listing them according to their price.

It is well known for its adverts featuring fictitious opera singer Gio Compario.

Ms Parsons said: "I am very proud that a company I started at my kitchen table eight years ago has achieved so much in such a short period of time.

"Today, we are a leading price comparison business in the UK and this is credit to all the wonderful, hard-working people we have in Newport."

Last year, GoCompare reported sales of £110m and pre-tax profits of £25m.

Ms Parsons spent 14 years with Cardiff-based insurance firm Admiral, where she was instrumental in the launch of Confused.com, the first motor insurance comparison site in the UK.

In 2012, she was awarded an OBE and she has also won many business awards.

Esure has owned 50% of GoCompare since 2010, when it exercised an option taken out in 2007 to buy a stake in the business.

As well as Ms Parsons, other selling shareholders in the deal include GoCompare's employee benefit trust and current and former directors and staff.