Inflexion exits Southport-based insurance broker in £425m sale
Private equity investor, Inflexion, has entered an agreement for the sale of its investment in David Roberts & Partners, the Southport-based insurance broker, to BMS Group, an independent specialist insurance and reinsurance broker, for a reported £425m.
Founded in 1977, but owned by Inflexion since 2021 DR&P has grown from a single site to employ 400 people in 25 offices across the UK and Europe, handling in excess of £620 million of premiums for their clients.
Inflexion re-invested in 2023 to support further growth of the business as part of a mergers and acquisition strategy to build a network of strategically aligned businesses in the regional insurance broking market.
As is common in many similar “buy and build” operations the business also made a significant investment in its technology infrastructure.
DR&P has grown by 23%, having made 14 acquisitions over the last three years, with a tenfold increase in EBITDA alongside a quadrupling of headcount during Inflexion’s investment.
Its last set of accounts published in August 2023 showed that the business made EBITDA of £8.3m on sales of £23.3m for the year to December 2022.
The business enjoys 95% client retention and has active clients in 46 countries worldwide, despite being UK-only focused when Inflexion invested.
Inflexion’s exit of DR&P follows its previous highly successful investment in Bollington Wilson which was sold to US-listed Arthur J Gallagher in 2021 following a transformational merger and five subsequent acquisitions which delivered EBITDA growth of 133%.
The deal is BMS’s largest acquisition to date and creates a business managing over £8 billion of gross written premiums.
BMS’s investor group, Eurazeo, British Columbia Investment Management Corporation (BCI), and Preservation Capital Partners (PCP) supported the management team in this strategic acquisition, positioning BMS for further growth.
Malcolm Coffin, Partner and Head of Inflexion’s Enterprise Fund, said: “Our partnership with DR&P has been both highly productive and richly rewarding for all involved, a testimony to the tremendous skill and energy of such a talented management team in delivering industry-leading organic performance alongside thoughtful and impressive acquisitive-led growth.
“It also marks Inflexion’s second highly successful investment in the sector. We would like to thank the entire team for their hard work and wish them all the best for the future.”
John Page
John Page, Chief Executive of DR&P, said: “We are proud of what has been achieved with the support of Inflexion over the past three years.
“Their investment has allowed us to build a market-leading business in the UK insurance market. We believe there are significant opportunities for further growth ahead of us.”
The company – which also has offices in York and Grimsby – has been backed by the Inflexion Enterprise Fund V as it looks to implement its growth plans.
BMS were advised by Macquarie Capital, PwC, Skadden Arps and BMS Capital Advisory and DR&P were advised by Hines, Deloitte and DWF.
