Broker deals continue at near-record pace: Report
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Merger and acquisition activity among agents and brokers continues unabated, according to a survey released Tuesday by Marsh, Berry & Co. Inc.
The company’s M&A Trends 3Q18 report on insurance agency and broker transactions said 123 deals occurred in the third quarter of this year.
“This surge brings the year-to-date announced deal total to 392, only 6% off of last year’s record-setting pace,” Phil Trem, executive vice president of MarshBerry in Woodmere, Ohio, wrote in the report. He added that “at least one buyer plans to announce a significant number of transactions that occurred earlier in the year sometime during the (fourth) quarter 2018. These retroactive announcements will cause another spike in recorded activity and we believe it is highly likely that we will surpass the total deal count in 2017 of 557.”
Mr. Trem said the deals result from an “ever-increasing demand and a seemingly endless supply of selling agencies,” which in turn has caused valuations to rise.
According to the report, the top buyers in announced U.S. transactions so far this year were AssuredPartners Inc. with 28, Acrisure LLC with 26 and BroadStreet Partners Inc., also with 26. All three are private equity-backed entities, as are the rest of the top 10 buyers in announced U.S. transactions except Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. and Brown & Brown Inc.
The report is the second M&A survey to be released in less than a week, following Optis Partners LLC’s third-quarter analysis.
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An active insurance broker mergers and acquisitions market should produce a second consecutive year of more than 500 transactions as valuations rise, according to a report released Wednesday by analyst advisory firm Marsh, Berry & Co. Inc.
