Howden arm to execute ‘hire and acquire’ strategy to expand in Europe

Howden Group’s international underwriting arm  Dual is looking to attract the “very best” underwriting talent in the European marketplace and to make strategic acquisitions of “quality” MGAs to accelerate its growth and expansion in the region.

It has appointed Maurizio Ghilosso as executive chair of Dual Europe, which encompasses all of the European businesses of the group. Ghilosso will take on the chairmanship role in addition to his existing role as managing director of  Dual Italia.

The move is a part of  Dual’s plan to create a $5 billion GWP international MGA by 2027.

Dual currently writes just under $300 million GWP in the region but sees “tremendous opportunities” to significantly grow its European businesses.

“We have ambitions to grow the business to greater than $750m GWP by 2027,” said Kieran Sweeney, executive chairman of  Dual Group.

“We believe  DUAL is ideally positioned to attract the very best underwriters in the European marketplace and to make strategic acquisitions of quality MGAs to accelerate our growth and expansion into new territories.”

Sweeney further explained that under Ghilosso’s leadership,  Dual looks to execute a “hire and acquire” strategy that it believes will “materially broaden our product offering to our distribution partners and clients in Europe.”

“Maurizio will lever a global underwriting platform that invests heavily in people and technology to deliver a value proposition to our capacity partners and European clients that is truly market leading. Europe will be a key contributor as we work to achieve our broader goal for  Dual Group; to create a significant international underwriting business,” he added.

Ghilosso commented: “I am absolutely delighted to accept this wonderful opportunity. Having already established a strong and sustained presence in a number of key local markets, we know the size of the opportunity Europe represents for  Dual. We are looking forward to adding new underwriting talent to our team to help us expand into new products, enter new markets and build  DUAL Europe into a bigger and even more successful underwriting business than it is today.”

Richard Clapham, CEO of  Dual Group, added: “I am thrilled to announce that Maurizio will become Executive Chair of  DUAL Europe. Since he joined the group in 2005, Maurizio has demonstrated his leadership skills by building  DUAL Italia into the largest and most successful MGA in Italy. I know that he will make  DUAL Europe the specialty market of choice for quality brokers, and the employer of choice for the best talent in Europe.”

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