Insurance mergers and acquisitions in first half of 2019 break record
M&A activity in the past 12 months set a new record with 665 recorded transactions.
The steady increase of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in the insurance industry and aggressiveness of buyers in recent years hasn’t let up in 2019, new data shows. In the first half of 2019, there were 328 announced insurance agency M&As, up from 300 M&A transactions in the first half of 2018, OPTIS Partners reports.
According to OPTIS Partners’ M&A database, it is now the second-highest six-month total on record, trailing only the first half of 2017 when 333 transactions were reported. 2019′s M&As contribute to a record 665 transactions that have closed in the past 12 months.
OPTIS Partners, an investment banking and financial consulting firm specializing in the insurance industry, detailed the insurance industry’s M&A activity in the first half of 2019 in a report published last month. The data covers U.S. and Canadian agencies selling primarily P&C insurance, agencies selling both P&C and employee benefits, and those selling only employee benefits.
Notably, not all insurance M&As or sales are announced, so the actual number of agency sales undoubtedly exceeded the number reported, Daniel P. Menzer of OPTIS Partners says.
The biggest M&A players in insurance
The report breaks down buyers into four groups: private equity-backed/hybrid brokers, privately held brokers, publicly held brokers, and all others.
Private equity or hybrid brokers accounted for nearly two-thirds of all announced transactions in the past 12 months, and made 28 acquisitions in the first half of 2019. This is now the second-highest six-month total for this buyer group on record, second only to the 30 acquisitions made in the first half of last year.
Looking at the players involved, Acrisure led all buyers with 39 announced transactions in the first half of 2019, but OPTIS makes a significant note that that is their lowest six-month total since 2016. Other top buyers were:
- Hub International with 26 deals,
- Patriot Growth (21),
- Assured Partners (21),
- Broadstreet Partners (18) and
- Gallagher (16).
Breaking down announced M&A activity by seller type, 169 transactions were made by P&C-only agencies, 82 sales were made by employee benefits agencies, 46 deals were made by P&C/benefits agencies and all others made 31 transactions.
Across the border, 27 out of the 328 reported deals took place in Canada, representing over 8% of the total. This is the highest count and percentage of Canadian-based sellers ever for the first six months of a year, OPTIS highlights. Among the players, Hub International completed nine of the 27 deals, while 13 other firms completed the remaining 18 transactions.
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