AM Best named Confie a top 18 Global Insurance Broker
Confie, a national personal and commercial lines insurance brokerage firm has entered the Massachusetts marketplace. The company officially enters the Commonwealth with the acquisition of the Axiom Insurance Agency.
“We are excited about our entry into Massachusetts and continuing our expansion in the Bay State,” said Valeria Rico, Chief Executive Officer of Confie, said in an official announcement. “As we developed plans to provide insurance services to Massachusetts consumers, our key objective was to identify a strong initial platform from which to further build our presence and offer our services throughout the state,” she explained.
Founded in 2000, the Axiom Insurance Agency is headquartered in Springfield. The personal lines insurance agency has a total of five locations throughout central Massachusetts, including the greater Springfield area, New Bedford, and Worcester. According to the terms of the acquisition, all of Axiom’s employees will become a part of Confie.
Further plans to expand within Massachusetts
With its acquisition of Axiom Insurance, Confie now boasts locations in 18 different states and the ability to service clients in all 50 states. While Confie’s initial entry into the Commonwealth is located in central Massachusetts, the company says this that Axiom’s locations provide a strategic foothold for the company to expand throughout the rest of the Commonwealth. “Axiom is a strong company that fits our objective very well,” notes Ms. Rico adding, ” …we look forward to expanding to locations throughout Massachusetts, including the Boston area.”
This strategy of expansion through the creation of a portfolio of regional auto insurance brokerages has served the company well. Since its inception in 2008, the Huntington Beach-based firm has completed over 100 acquisitions, with 25 of those occurring within the last 12 months.
In addition to its acquisitions, the company to date has raised in excess of $700 million to fund its acquisition strategy and now boasts revenues in excess of $500 million with more than 680 retail locations. In addition to being named a Top Global Insurance Broker by AM Best, the company was also rated the #1 Personal Lines Insurance Agency in 2014 and the #6 Independent Property/Casualty Agency in 2015.
Confie and the Hilb Group are portfolio companies of Boston-based ABRY Partners
Agency Checklists’ readers might find it interesting that Confie is a portfolio company of ABRY Partners. ABRY Partners is a Boston-based equity fund that invests in high quality companies and partners with management to help build their businesses. Since its founding in 1989, ABRY has completed over $42.0 billion of leveraged transactions and other private equity, mezzanine or preferred equity placements, representing investments in over 450 properties.
ABRY Partners also holds the Hilb Group of Richmond, Virginia as a portfolio company. The Hilb Group completed its first acquisition in Massachusetts in February 2016, with the purchase of Dowling & O’Neil, of Hyannis. See Agency Checklists, February 1, 2016. “The Hilb Group Acquires Hyannis’ Dowling & O’Neil.”
