Private equity firm Searchlight Capital Partners has brokered a deal to purchase a majority interest in UK-based insurance intermediary Global Risk Partners (GRP).
Financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed by the companies.
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GRP’s founding partners Peter Cullum CBE and David Margrett as well as founding investor Penta Capital will retain minority stakes in the insurance intermediary.
Established in 2013, GRP is currently one of the UK’s largest independent insurance intermediaries with a gross written premium nearing £800m.
The company employs more than 1,600 people. It operates retail broking, specialist managing general agency (MGA) and Lloyd’s businesses.
GRP executive chairman Peter Cullum CBE and group CEO David Margrett, said: “We are delighted that Searchlight will become the new majority shareholder in GRP.
“Searchlight is an ideal partner and it was obvious from an early stage that its ambition for the business and understanding of the opportunity was closely aligned with the Group’s values and vision.”
The company’s group managing director Mike Bruce has been named as its new CEO.
Margrett will become non-executive chairman, while Cullum will remain on the board as a non-executive director. Searchlight has more than $7bn in assets under management, with offices in New York, London and Toronto.
GRP, which has grown both organically and through acquisitions, recently acquired the Birrell Group, based in Lutterworth, Leicestershire. Birrell Group writes a wide array of commercial insurance products.
International law firm Proskauer Rose LLP advised Global Risk Partners in the transaction.
The Proskauer team was led by partners Alexander Griffith (Private Credit), Daniel Hendon (Private Credit), Richard Bull (Private Equity/M&A), and Stephen Pevsner (Tax) and associates Jessica Viner (Private Credit), Jessica Donnellan (Private Credit) and Thomas Wood (Private Equity/M&A).
