Goldman Sachs’ merchant banking division has agreed to acquire British insurance broker Aston Lark from mid-market private equity firm Bowmark Capital.

Aston Lark was formed from the merger of insurance brokerage firms Aston Scott Group and Lark Group in July 2018.

The acquired entity offers a number of insurance products and services such as commercial insurance, private client insurance and employee benefit advice, among others.

It operates from 27 regional offices and serves more than 100,000 clients. It generates premium of more than £350m ($445m) per annum.

Aston Lark group CEO Peter Blanc said: “We’re delighted to be able to announce that we’ve now exchanged contracts with Goldman Sachs.

“When this deal completes it will secure our independence for the foreseeable future to enable us to continue acquiring like-minded brokers and employee benefits advisors to create the UK’s most trusted Chartered Insurance Broker.

“We’re extremely proud of the business that we’ve built, and all of our management team are very excited about what the future holds. Our ambitions for the business can now be realised over the coming months and years and I’ll be talking to brokers that want to share in this journey.”

Goldman Sachs merchant banking division’s head of financial services investing Michele Titi-Cappelli said: “We have been impressed by what Peter Blanc and the Aston Lark team have achieved, and we are excited to be supporting the company’s growth ambitions both organically and via acquisitions.”

The transaction is subject to approvals from the Financial Conduct Authority, the Central Bank of Ireland, and antitrust body.

Financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed.