Nexus snaps up aerospace MGA from Castel

Specialty managing general agent (MGA) Nexus Group has completed the acquisition of Altitude Risk Partners from the club-style MGA formation platform Castel Underwriting Agencies via an asset purchase.

Altitude is an aerospace MGA based in London, co-founded in 2014 by David Godley, Richard Power and Tim Wright, and was the first underwriting business to launch in partnership with Castel. Altitude has underwritten a diverse portfolio across seven lines of aerospace insurance in more than 130 territories. Its gross written premium (GWP) for 2018 is forecasted to be in excess of $80 million.

Following the deal, Altitude will become a trading division of Nexus Underwriting and the business will continue to operate as usual. The current Altitude underwriting team will join Nexus and move into the Group’s London headquarters.

Godley has 20 years’ experience in the market and before co-founding Altitude he held a number of senior positions at Global Aerospace. Power has previously worked at Catlin Insurance Company, Starr Underwriting Agents and Global Aerospace Underwriting Managers. Wright is the longest serving London space market insurance specialist underwriter, with over 27 years of experience and before co-founding Altitude he worked at Aon and Global Aerospace.

“This is an evolutionary acquisition for Nexus, augmenting our ‘virtual insurer’ model by adding Aviation and Space, two highly specialised classes of business, to our existing 12 classes," said Colin Thompson, founder and Group CEO of Nexus. "The completion of this deal marks our tenth acquisition in the last three years, our third so far in 2018 and our second in a week, making Nexus today the product of 12 acquisitions and two joint ventures with subsequent buy outs. The Nexus Group is now a US$350m+ GWP MGA underwriting 15 specialty classes of business with forecasted 2018 EBITDA of £15m and income of £41m.

"Now is an excellent time for us to be buying an Aerospace MGA, with capacity being withdrawn, rates hardening, improving safety standards and increased focus on underwriting profitability across the market."

Thompson added: "As a Group, we continue to target three acquisitions per annum, including transformational deals such as this which enrich our business with new expertise and solutions. We have a busy pipeline and will continue to proactively look for new opportunities that fit into our M&A model.”

Mark Birrell, CEO of Castel, commented: “This is an important milestone in the development of Castel with Altitude being both the first of the 13 underwriting cells to launch on our formation platform and the first to exit. The deal clearly demonstrates that our business model of supporting entrepreneurial underwriters in launching and building successful businesses is working. This proven structure enables us to continue to identify and develop opportunities to bring other entrepreneurial teams to market.”

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