BGC Partners has agreed to buy London-based reinsurance, wholesale and specialty broker Ed Broking Group. Ed was previously owned by US-based private equity firm Lightyear Capital.
Ed operates as an independent Lloyd’s of London insurance broker and offers multiple solutions. These include accident and health, aerospace, cargo, energy, financial and political risks, marine, professional and executive risk, property and casualty, specialty and reinsurance services.
Go deeper with GlobalData
BGC Partners buys Ed
As per the terms of the deal, BGC will purchase 100% of Ed including broking operations under the Ed brand in UK, Singapore, Hong Kong, Dubai, Miami and China.
Additionally, the New York-based firm will acquire Junge & Co Versicherungsmakler, a German marine broking unit of Ed; and Ed’s managing general agent (MGA) operations Globe Underwriting in the UK; as well as Cooper Gay (France) in Paris.
BGC Partners president Shaun Lynn said: “We are delighted to reach an agreement to purchase Ed, a leading independent Lloyd’s of London broker with a global footprint. It will be an important acquisition with respect to our strategy of building the insurance brokerage division within the Company.”
Ed Broking group CEO Steve Hearn said: “To be able to announce the agreement with BGC is tremendously satisfying, given their ambition and appetite for growth. We feel that the best fit and the strongest future for us is with BGC, one of the leading brokerage firms in the world. With them, we are poised to make the next leap forward to redefine insurance broking.”
BGC expects the takeover of Ed to boost its insurance division, which was formed in 2017 with the acquisition of Besso Insurance Group, a Lloyd’s broker with operations in UK, Brazil, Dubai and Turkey.
With the addition of Ed ‘s brokers and back office personnel, BGC expects that Ed and Besso together will provide nearly $2bn of premium in 2018 and have about 300 combined brokers operating in 10 countries.
Financial terms of the transaction have not been revealed.
