Ardonagh Group expands into Australia with acquisition

UK insurance intermediary The Ardonagh Group has expanded in Australia with the acquisition of Resilium BidCo, the country's largest independently owned intermediary network.

With offices in Sydney, Melbourne and the Gold Coast, Resilium connects a network of more than 150 Corporate Authorised Representatives (ARs) with over 100 insurers globally, providing business and personal insurance solutions to clients across Australia.

Resilium will continue to be led by managing director Adrian Kitchin, who has overseen the business’ growth trajectory over the past five years, with GWP under management of over A$500 million in 2020, generating revenue of A$19 million for the financial year ending 30 June 2020.

Kitchin will be joined on the board by Paul Lynam in the newly created role of chairman. Lynam has 30 years’ experience in the insurance market across broking and underwriting and will oversee the Group’s M&A pipeline in the region as well as working with Kitchin and the management team to leverage opportunities for Ardonagh’s wider portfolio within Australia.

The acquisition follows the purchase of Broker Network and Compass Networks in July 2020, two intermediary networks within the UK broking sector.

The group funded the purchase via its committed acquisition facility.

Ardonagh group CEO David Ross said: “We’re thrilled to be welcoming Resilium into the Ardonagh portfolio as the centerpiece of our Australian operations and to be empowering this well-respected, high calibre team to enter their next exciting chapter of growth.

“The opportunity to accelerate the execution of Resilium’s strategic ambitions via the backing, resources and scale of Ardonagh is clear and compelling, as is the chance to share learnings and leverage expertise from the expansion journeys of the Group’s existing UK intermediary networks.”

Kitchin added: “The strategic backing of Ardonagh will turbo-charge Resilium’s trajectory, giving us access to the capital and resources to explore strategic, complementary acquisitions across the country while also continuing to grow organically.

“With access to the full suite of Ardonagh’s assets including technology, facilities and Lloyd’s market access, the expanded value proposition for our ARs enables us to cement Resilium’s status as the preeminent Australian general insurance AR network of choice.”

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