Marsh Inc Buys Texan Insurer
November 12, 2009
Marsh & McLennan Agency, a subsidiary of insurer Marsh Inc., acquired Insurance Alliance, a Houston-based independent insurance agency.
The deal itself is news, but Marsh & McLennan’s intentions are not—the insurer had previously revealed intentions to embark upon an M&A spree as it works to build a national business serving small and mid-sized companies nationwide.
Terms of the transaction were not disclosed and calls seeking comment were not responded to by press time.
Insurance Alliance gives the New York-based insurer an instant presence in Texas and in the Southwest, where the bulk of its 1,500 commercial clients are based. Insurance Alliance’s specialty teams focus on construction, general property and casualty and energy and marine insurance, among others.
The terms of the deal have Insurance Alliance chairman Woody Woodward becoming the chief executive of Marsh & McLennan’s Southwest operations; other Insurance Alliance execs also took top M&M roles for that region. In October 2008, Marsh & McLennan began offering commercial property and casualty, personal lines and employee benefits nationwide.
Other companies included under the Marsh Inc. umbrella include Kroll, a risk consultant, Mercer, a provider of HR and related services and Oliver Wyman, a management consultant.
Other insurance and financial services deals include Liberty Acquisition Co.’s investment in the Pearl Group, which is privately-held and majority-owned by Sun Capital Partners and TDR Capital. United Insurance Holdings, a Florida insurance company, bought a local competitor in March of this year, also.
New York-based private equity firm Aquiline Capital Partners has invested in TigerRisk Partners, a privately-held reinsurance broker and risk advisor based in Connecticut. The terms of the deal were not disclosed but the company’s chief executive said some of the capital would be used for M&A in the US and abroad.
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