Insurance broker merger and acquisitions continued apace in the United States and Canada in the second quarter of 2018, but at a slower rate than the same period last year, according to an Optis Partners L.L.C. report.
The Chicago-based M&A advisory and consulting firm said Thursday that 135 broker and agency transactions were completed in the second quarter, down 8.2% compared with the same period in 2017, but still the second highest second-quarter total in the past 10 years.
For the first half of 2018, 280 transactions were completed, down 15.9% from the 2017 period; but again, the 2018 first-half total was the second largest for the period in the past decade.
Of the 280 deals in the first half of 2018, 188 were by private equity-backed brokers, 55 were by privately owned brokers, 24 were by publicly owned brokers, 10 were by bank-owned brokers, and three were by other firms.
The top three acquirers in the first half were: Acrisure L.L.C. with 41 deals, Hub International Ltd. with 33 and AssuredPartners Inc. with 19.
Announced deal value for the insurance sector was off sharply in the second half of 2017, though the brokerage sector continued to dominate deal volume, according to a PricewaterhouseCoopers L.L.P. report released Thursday.