Following on the heels of our article regarding the record year that was 2012 for insurance agency mergers and acquisitions, Agency Checklists thought it might be interesting to delve a little deeper into the numbers to see who it was that made 2012 such a banner year.
As we noted in our other article, overall there were 291 acquisitions this past year. Within the top ten list, seven of the companies were private equity backed firms, with three bank-owned companies and five public companies also making an appearance. The only privately owned company to be included was Ryan Specialty who tied for eighth place.
Please click on the slideshow to see who else rounds out the list.
THE TOP TEN FOR 2012
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A further look at the trends
Optis Partners, the insurance consulting firm who compiled the numbers for us, notes that while the same incentives are not there for 2013, the market is still ripe for many more agency acquisitions.
“It is not likely the record setting year of 2012 will be repeated in 2013 due to the lack of tax-driven seller motivation and the absorption of a large part of the available seller inventory…The agent-broker industry [however] is afflicted with a large “boomer” population with over one-third of all agency principals over the age of 55. The only realistic option for the majority of this group is to effect a sale transaction and thus it should provide a robust inventory of sale candidates for the buy-side group.”
