Aston Lark, the rapidly growing insurance broking group currently backed by Goldman Sachs, has continued its acquisition spree – announcing a deal for Braddons.
Established in 1994 by Steve and Catherine Solly, Braddons is a specialist corporate insurance broking firm focusing on the construction and real estate sectors and growing significantly from the privatisation of the BR rail infrastructure and expansion of private finance initiative projects into schools, universities, the NHS, and local authorities. The firm has recently expanded into other niche sectors, including recruitment, energy, transportation, life sciences, clinical negligence, fintech, and financial institutions, serving blue-chip clients.
After two years of seeking a broking firm committed to clients, Braddons chose Aston Lark, it stated, to enable it to bring together the insurance market’s skills and appetite to meet its clients’ needs and requirements.
“We place challenging and highly complex risks into the London insurance market. Evolving changes brought about by Brexit and continuous development of new specialist underwriting entities creates a need for us to seek a broader capability to ensure we maintain our ability to deliver solutions that offer the best outcome for our clients,” said Braddons managing director Steve Solly.
“It is imperative to Catherine and me that the company’s ability to service clients remains uncompromised and at the centre of our business. We have very fortunately found that ethos and resource with Aston Lark and Howden, and all of us at Braddons look forward enormously to working with our new colleagues.”
Aston Lark group CEO Peter Blanc, who deemed Braddons a “fabulous addition to the group,” commented: “We are delighted that the Braddons team has chosen Aston Lark as their natural home.”
He added: “We look forward to working closely with the team to continue to deliver the exceptional service standard their clients are accustomed to.”
The deal with Braddons comes ahead of international insurance broking group Howden’s acquisition of Aston Lark, completing Howden’s UK broking business – with Aston Lark joining A-Plan Group and Howden UK to create a full-service broker.
