Discovery Insure Hosts New Consultant, Rory Byrne

Kansai appeals Commission condition Kansai announced recently that it has requested the Competition Tribunal to reconsider the divestiture condition imposed by the Competition Commission earlier this year – in essence appealing the Commission’s decision. The Japanese paint manufacturer attempted a hostile takeover of local company Freeworld Coatings’s Automotive Paints Division earlier this year. The appeal will however be limited to the divestiture condition only and does not affect any of the public interest conditions. The appeal is based on the company’s belief that the manner in which the Commission imposed this structural remedy was flawed, and that it did not fully appreciate the underlying characteristics of the automotive coatings market. The company believes that the divestiture condition may have a negative impact on the broader business of Freeworld and its wider stakeholders.

Kansai has also applied for interim relief to suspend the condition, pending the outcome of the appeal. If the interim relief is granted, no further steps will be taken by Freeworld to divest of its automotive coatings business until the outcome of the appeal is known, a process that is anticipated to take 3 to 5 months to complete. Discovery Insure have partnered with Rory Byrne - current consultant to, and ex Chief Designer on, the Ferrari Formula 1 team - as a consultant on its new package. Byrne will be part of the team analysing the telematics generated by the DQ-Track system. This system provides telemetry that measures a driver’s behavioural characteristics, such as acceleration, braking, cornering, speed vs speed limits and so forth, whilst operating the vehicle. This data can then be analysed by the actuaries and engineers to provide key measures, which are weighted and applied to the points system that then effects the insured driver’s portion of their cash-back bonuses.

According to Anton Ossip, CEO of Discovery Insure, this history of driver characteristics will not result in penalities to the insured, unless it applies to a specific claim incident. When queried, he also said that in instances where the insured regularly operated different vehicles, the DQ systems would be fitted to the various vehicles in order to monitor each driving event. Following the brief welcome by Ossip, guests were then treated to a face to face interview with Byrne. He provided some interesting insight into the world of Formula 1, the teams and drivers, having worked at both Benneton and Ferrari amongst others, with the likes of the late Ayrton Senna, Nelson Piquet and Michael Schumacher, to name but a few. When asked who he thought was the currently the best F1 driver, Byrne replied that in F1, 80% of any success was attributable to the car and 20% to the driver, however he believes that currently Alonso, Hamilton and Vettel stand out from the rest. Byrne also explained how safety technology and parameters originally implemented in F1, have been mirrored in our modern road vehicles, helping make the vehicles safer to operate. The interview concluded with an open question forum and lunch. 

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