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10. AssuredPartners buys Keenan as brokerage M&As continue at red-hot pace

Posted On: Dec. 26, 2017 7:44 AM CST

Insurance brokerage mergers continued apace in 2017, including a deal that brought together two of the largest privately held firms.

In March, acquisitive brokerage AssuredPartners Inc. announced it would be making its first significant move into California with the purchase of Keenan & Associates. The article about the deal was the tenth most read Risk Management story on BI’s website in 2017.

The deal added more than $800 million in revenue to Lake Mary, Florida-based AssuredPartners and is its largest deal to date.

In a later interview with Business Insurance, AssuredPartners Chairman and CEO Jim Henderson described how the acquisition was “transformative” for the brokerage and was the deal it was waiting for to make its move into California.  

The AssuredPartners/Keenan deal was one of numerous brokerage M&As in 2017. According to an analysis by Chicago-based Optis Partners L.L.C., there were 457 transactions reported through just the first nine months of the year, which equaled the previous annual record from 2015.