As the year draws to a close the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the 2020 trading results of insurance businesses is coming to light. The insurance intermediary Global Risk Partners (GRP) has today revealed its end of year trading update, posting a 22% increase in run-rate EBITDA of £61 million, compared to £50 million in 2019.
Group CEO Mike Bruce noted that the run-rate income of GRP grew 17% to £163 million in 2020, while its deal activity pushed its overall GWP to just below £900 million, up from £800 million in 2019. The group completed 18 acquisitions during 2020, he said, marking 71 acquisitions since GRP started trading.
“After the investment from Searchlight Capital Partners in June,” he said, “we had a clear mandate to continue our buy and build strategy, not only in retail commercial brokers, but in building out the portfolio into new lines and regions, including digital broking (Insync), healthcare insurance (Premier Choice) and the Irish Republic (Crotty).”
Bruce highlighted the role played by GRP’s hub businesses in identifying and bringing 13 acquisitions over the line in 2020 and said its acquisition model remains “highly appealing”. The group takes a long-term view of its investments, he said, and this focus on long-term growth feeds through to the acquisition strategies of the senior management teams across GRP’s portfolio.
“Our acquisition pipeline remains very strong; we anticipate adding new hubs to our UK footprint shortly,” he said, “and to completing further deals as vendors see the advantages of being part of a bigger group, especially during the current economic uncertainty, and broking businesses continue to hold attractive valuations.”
Commenting on the trading update, Bruce stated that these are rewarding results after a hugely challenging year both for the broking community and the wider economy. He paid tribute to the entire GRP team for its resilience and commitment and the work that staff have done in supporting clients throughout the year. Going forward, he said, GRP is well placed to manage clients through the hardening market in commercial.
He noted that the business’s significant investment in data analytics and its own bespoke data warehouse has given it added resilience and the ability to utilise its product and service propositions for the benefit of clients.
“Notwithstanding Brexit and further COVID-related challenges,” Bruce said, “our 2020 performance, built on the professionalism of our people and the fruits of our increasing focus on digital capability and data analytics, gives us added confidence that GRP will further accelerate its growth trajectory next year.”
