Howden in talks to buy TigerRisk but deal could still stumble

Expansive broking group  Howden is nearing a deal to buy reinsurance broker  TigerRisk Partners, sources claim. The tie up would create a global broker of significant size, boasting reinsurance operations on a par with some of the biggest players in the market, sources suggest, including Aon’s reinsurance unit and Guy Carpenter/JLT Re, which combined in 2019.

A source told Intelligent Insurer that the two firms were in “advanced talks” but nothing had been signed yet.

The source, however, warned that a M&A of this calibre has plenty of hurdles to clear before it can get even close to completion. The potential tie between broking giants Aon and Willis Towers Watson was a case in point - their now collapsed $30 billion merger would have created the world's largest insurance broker. That deal came under close scrutiny from regulators.

As other big deals such as Aon/Willis have shown, things could still hit obstacles, the source noted. “There are still many reasons the deal might not go ahead.

“But in theory you can also see why this could be a strategic fit for both firms.”

TigerRisk was formed in 2008 by industry veterans Rod Fox (pictured left) and Jim Stanard (pictured right). It has gone through a number of changes in the recent past, including a reshuffle of its executive team and sale of a portion of business to private equity firm Flexpoint Ford in April 2020, in a move it said, at that time, will help navigate a “difficult period and capitalise on a dynamic competitive landscape”.

TigerRisk also launched its Markets and Advisory Group in 2015, which focuses on insurance and reinsurance-focused investment banking and forms of risk transfer including insurance-linked securities (ILS), all forms of cat bonds and sidecars, capital raising and mergers and acquisitions (M&A) advice.

Howden claims to be the largest independently-owned international retail insurance broker in the world. Its largest acquisition to date was Aston Lark, which created a UK business managing over £6 billion of gross written premium with more than 5,000 employees.

The company’s acquisition of A-Plan, the parent of broker Endsleigh, earlier last year created a combined entity managing £4 billion in gross written premiums.

Did you get value from this story?  Sign up to our free daily newsletters and get stories like this sent straight to your inbox.