Saga, the over-50s holiday and insurance firm, has bought a motorbike insurance company for £26.3 million.

The acquisition of Bennetts, which has more than 200,000 customers, is part of a strategy to grow its insurance broking operations.

Saga, based in Folkestone, already provides insurance for 20,000 customers with motorbikes.

The acquisition means it will offer bikers insurance under the Bennetts brand, which has about 43% of clients aged over 50 and 77% over 40.

It is expected the move will give Saga 20% of the UK’s motorbike insurance market, with its newly

acquired company to benefit from access to its database of 10.6 million people.

Saga will pay £26.26 million in cash for Bennetts to owners BGL Group.

Chief executive Lance Batchelor said: “Bennetts sits perfectly within our business model: a capital light, cash generative business that will seamlessly integrate with our database to quickly deliver tangible returns.

"Our model works best where we can differentiate our service, leverage superior customer knowledge to tailor the best product for customers and create cross-selling opportunities.

“Bennetts will allow us to better meet the need for competitive bike insurance while also allowing us to increase our customer base."

Bennetts reported revenues of £17 million and gross premiums of £31 million in the year to June 2014.