4. USI buys Wells Fargo’s commercial insurance business
Posted On: Dec. 26, 2017 8:42 AM CSTThe ranks of the world’s top commercial insurance brokers were revised in 2017 as USI Insurance Services L.L.C. agreed in June to buy brokerage Wells Fargo Insurance Services USA Inc., for an undisclosed sum.
The deal roughly doubled Valhalla, New York-based USI’s revenue to about $2 billion. The USI deal, which closed Nov. 30, vaults USI from No. 10 to No. 5 in the ranking of the world’s top commercial brokers, based on 2016 numbers. The article about the deal was the fourth most read Risk Management story on Business Insurance’s website in 2017.
The two brokerages had worked out a smaller deal in 2014 when USI bought 42 Wells Fargo Insurance offices.
In an interview with Business Insurance, USI CEO Mike Sicard said the Wells Fargo deal represented a unique opportunity for USI.
USI also saw a new ownership structure 2017 as it was bought by private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. L.P. and Montreal-based Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec for $4.3 billion in March.
The remainder of the Wells Fargo brokerage business that was left after the 2017 USI deal, which consisted of crop insurance business, went to Hub International Ltd. in a separate deal announced in November.