MAJOR Eastleigh employer Fortis, the Belgian insurer, is to change its name to Ageas.

Shareholders of the company were almost unanimous in support of the move, which distances the business further from the woes of its former banking arm in 2008.

With the ailing bank sold to French finance giant BNP Paribas last year, the firm said the name change reflected its new status as “a stand-alone international insurance group”.

Fortis currently employs 900 people at its UK headquarters in Chandler’s Ford, with another 100 staff expected to be hired as work progresses on a major contract to supply in-house insurance products to Tesco. The use of the Fortis name will continue in the UK for the time being, with the Ageas brand being “introduced in a gradual and controlled way”. The process is expected to be complete early next year.

The ‘a’ and ‘g’ of Ageas are supposed to represent the firm’s roots as AG Leven, with the ‘e’ and ‘a’ representing its core markets of Europe and Asia. The final ‘a’ is used again with the ‘s’ to stand for assurance.