Insurance

Howden Builds War Chest for Investments of More Than £1B; Blanc Named Head of M&A

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Howden Group Holdings announced it has successfully raised more than £875 million ($1.1 billion) across both debt and equity, with total cash and facilities available for investment in M&A, new initiatives and talent in excess of £1 billion ($1.2 billion).

Howden completed a term loan of $500 million over seven years on March 24. More than 60 lenders provided capital to the group, which included more than 10 lenders who were new. The group also increased its revolving credit facility from £185 million to £360 million ($230.2 million to $447.9 million) across a range of banking relationships.

Howden is now the world’s largest managing general agent, the top international retail broker, as well as one of the four leading reinsurance brokers. With the announcement of pro-forma results for 2022 of in excess of £2 billion in revenue, achieved through both market leading organic growth (19% in FY22, 19% in FY21) as well as M&A and other growth initiatives, the fresh investment heralds the start of the next phase of its development.

Attracting talent through the acquisition of entrepreneurial businesses with standout expertise and through investment in new hires remains at the heart of the group’s growth strategy.

Peter Blanc, executive chairman of Howden UK&I, will now take on the new role of head of M&A, reporting to David Howden, CEO Howden Group Holdings, effective immediately. He will support Howden and the leadership team to deliver the group’s strategy to build out its geographic reach and product expertise where it can make a difference for clients across retail broking, reinsurance broking and underwriting.

“With the formation of HowdenTiger in January we have completed the architecture of the group. With the £2 billion revenue milestone passed and with 14,500 employees across 50 countries and $30 billion of GWP, we have the scale and leverage to be the difference that clients and talent are seeking,” commented CEO Howden.

“And now, following the £5 billion we have invested over the last three years, we have raised a further £1 billion giving us the financial firepower to accelerate at pace by joining with the best businesses and brightest talent who are looking for a forever home where they can continue to deliver their expertise and service in a culture that cherishes entrepreneurial spirit,” he added.

“Our focus now turns to three key areas: unlocking the extraordinary value within the group by harnessing our collective power; attracting talent and aligned businesses; and investing in our infrastructure to ensure our experts are empowered to do their best for our clients,” Howden said.

“It is Peter who, in bringing Aston Lark to Howden, coined the phrase ‘forever home.’ Having built Aston Lark from the ground up through his well-recognised ability to identify and execute high quality transactions with a deep-rooted cultural alignment, he is obviously very well-placed to support me and our leadership teams in the further development of our very healthy M&A pipeline as we begin the next chapter of our development,” Howden said.

“With our leading position in the UK now established, we will continue to focus heavily on our European reach as well as developing our wider global footprint with acquisitions of high quality businesses where we can bring choice to clients,” he continued.

Howden described the group’s “unique capital model” as the engine of its journey.

“I am thrilled that the clarity of our model allows us to raise competitively priced debt in extraordinary capital markets conditions,” he said.

“The longevity of our equity partners, General Atlantic (2013), CDPQ (2018) and Hg Capital (2021), and their belief in and support for our model is borne out in their continued investment in the group, with each investing £450 million since 2021,” Howden said. “But most of all it is our employee ownership heart of which I am proud. In our most recent internal share offer we welcomed 1,000 new employees as shareholders; 4,500 of us now own a share in the business we are building.”

Howden Group Holdings was founded in 1994 and comprises Howden Broking, as well as the underwriting company DUAL. Howden Group Holdings’ businesses operate in 50 countries across Europe, Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, the USA, Australia and New Zealand, employing 14,500 people and handling $30 billion of premium on behalf of clients.

Source: Howden Group Holdings

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