The opening days of 2019 have been all about insurance deals officially crossing the line – and now you can add another to that list.
News of deals being closed have been flying into Insurance Business today including The Carlyle Group’s swoop for Sedgwick, AIG’s deal for Ellipse and Ardonagh’s finalisation of its move for Swinton Group. Now however, it is an aspect of the Ardonagh Group itself that is being acquired.
Arch Insurance Europe has completed its acquisition of the UK commercial lines business that Ardonagh owned and part of its Geo Underwriting operating segment. In a release announcing that the deal has crossed the line the company outlined that Arch has a strategy to grow its regional UK presence and expand its retail distribution network – as a result the newly acquired business, which secured more than £150 million GWP during 2017, will become part of the new Arch UK regional division. The division is to focus on professional liability, property, casualty, personal accident, travel and motor. The move also sees around 250 employees move to Arch.
Offering more detail on the acquisition, Matt Shulman, president and CEO of Arch Insurance Europe, outlined that the Arch UK regional division will have an extended office network throughout the UK.
“We are pleased to have completed the acquisition of Geo’s commercial lines business and are excited as we welcome another team of high-quality underwriting and distribution professionals to Arch,” he said.
“It is our ambition for the Arch UK regional division to become a leading underwriting partner for brokers and their small and medium enterprise (SME) clients across the UK. This is an important part of our broader strategy to establish a strong regional presence for Arch in the UK, allowing us to combine our underwriting expertise with the distribution needed to offer our specialist insurance solutions to a broader range of SME clients.”
