Insurance M&A slows as deal volume drops 27% YoY
Agencies that focused solely on P&C lines accounted for 62% of the transactions during the period.
Through the first 9 months of this year, insurance M&A deals in the U.S. and Canada were down 27% compared with the year prior, according to Optis Partners. There were a total of 534 deals during the period compared with 729 during the same timeframe in 2022.
According to Steve Germundson, partner with Optis, the rising cost of capital and a smaller supply of businesses up for sale are among the primary drivers of the decline.
Agencies that strictly deal with P&C lines saw 333 total transactions during the period and accounted for 62% of all deals, according to Optis Partners. Around 12% of the deals can be attributed to agencies that only sell employee benefits and agencies that sell both employee benefits and P&C lines. MGAs accounted for 5% of transactions, while agencies dealing in “life/financial services agencies, consulting and other businesses associated with insurance distribution” made up 8% of deals during the period.
Acrisure and PCF Insurance, which are typically leaders in transaction counts, slowed their deal-making and conducted 81% fewer purchases this year than in 2022, Optis Partners reported, which noted Acrisure’s deal count is down 66% compared with year prior.
Further, among the 10 most active buyers, four completed fewer deals through the first nine months of 2023 than they did during the same period in 2022. This includes a 31% decline in deals at Hub International, a 10% drop at Patriot Growth Insurance Services and a 5% decline for Keystone Agency Partners.
A bubble deflates
Optis Partners noted that with these results, it can be concluded that the 25-month “M&A bubble” that started in December 2020 has officially ended.
The bubble was largely inflated by private equity-backed buyers, who were met with an influx of agency owners willing to sell for larger-than-expected valuations.
Although transactions have fallen, valuations have held steady, according to Tim Cunningham, managing partner at Optis.
“The economic change of rising interest rates and a reduction in the supply of sellers has fundamentally changed the value proposition that the insurance distribution business represents,” Cunningham said in a release. “It has not reduced the demand from a still robust group of buyers. We expect the valuation environment to hold rather steady, though we could see that soften slightly for less attractive firms over the coming quarters.”
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