(Bloomberg) -- Hastings Insurance Group increased its customerbase by 20% in 2014, boosting profitability and setting the U.K.car insurer on track for a potential initial public offering thisyear.

Hastings, which generates 90% of its business fromprice-comparison websites, gained 290,000 customers last year to1.71 million, a statement showed Thursday. Gross written premiumsincreased 19% and adjusted pretax profit rose 29% to 69.3 millionpounds ($103 million).

“Everyone is very pleased with the way the company isprogressing, but at some stage it’s appropriate for shareholders tobe able to get a return on their investments,” Chief ExecutiveOfficer Gary Hoffman, 54, said in a telephone interview. “There aredifferent ways of doing that and an IPO is an obvious way.”

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