Last week, insurance investor Global Risk Partners (GRP) revealed that it had taken a majority stake in East Sussex-based Green Insurance Group. Now, GRP’s broking CEO has revealed more on the move and future plans.
GRP has made a number of purchases across the country in recent years – including Higos in the southwest, ABL in Northern Ireland, and Marshall Wooldridge in the north – all part of its strategy to set up regional hubs.
“Our model in our regional business is very much around investing in a regional hub, using that as our figurehead business in that particular region, and then using that to do further bolt-on acquisitions,” Mike Bruce, CEO of broking, told Insurance Business.
“Green was a business that we knew of, and they have been a very acquisitive business,” Bruce said of its latest buy, which has itself bought 25 other brokers since being founded in 1973. At nearly £30 million gross written premium (GWP), Green is also one of scale, he said, and has “acquisitions in their DNA… and that’s very important to us, that people are comfortable doing acquisitions.”
Green, which provides a wide range of coverages both personal and commercial, also met the high standards that GRP holds for its acquisition targets – and one that is central to its ethos for growth.
“M&A is an area where it’s very easy to do a poor acquisition,” Bruce explained. “So we definitely have a quality filter for all of our acquisitions, because we can go and buy a business to create a new hub very easily, but it has to be right from all sorts of perspectives.”
The management team at the firm, which has several offices throughout Kent and Sussex, will stay at the company and is set to retain equity in the business. Chairman Clive Galbraith called the move “a vote of confidence in our people and our strategy.”
GRP is set to continue its acquisition trail around the UK, Bruce revealed. “You can probably work out by looking at the map which other areas of the UK we’re looking at, which we’re beavering away on with our M&A team.”
With four regional hubs currently, the firm is looking to ink deals for hubs number five and six in the remainder of the year, though Bruce added, “It’s all around getting the right business.”
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