U.S investment giant Blackstone has led a $2 billion investment in U.S. insurance broker Acrisure via funds managed by its GSO Capital Partners and Tactical Opportunities businesses.
The group of investors led by Blackstone also consisted of Partners Group and Harvest Partners SCF.
Acrisure remains over 83% owned by its own management team and agency partners following this latest investment, which implies a valuation for the brokerage of more than $7 billion.
Over the past two years, Acrisure has grown from $650 million in revenue to approximately $1.5 billion. It completed 92 acquisitions in 2017 and is expected to complete more than 100 by year-end 2018.
In 2016, Acrisure completed a $2.9 billion management-led buyout (MBO) in a transaction led by Greg Williams, Acrisure’s President, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and co-founder, as well as a consortium of minority investors.
Blackstone and Partners Group were part of the initial group of investors supporting the MBO.
“Since we initially invested in Acrisure in 2016, we have been very pleased with the company’s progress and have chosen to significantly increase our level of investment,” said Louis Salvatore, Senior Managing Director at Blackstone’s GSO Capital Partners.
“Acrisure has grown at an accelerated rate as a result of the efforts of Greg and his management team and agency partners who control the company,” he continued.” Based on this progress, we are very optimistic about the company’s continued future performance and we remain strongly supportive of the team as it accelerates Acrisure’s growth trajectory.”
Williams also commented: “The increased investment by our existing investors is a strong endorsement of our growth strategy and represents another exciting chapter for Acrisure. The additional capital and resources will significantly benefit our company as we continue to grow organically and pursue additional M&A opportunities.
“Over the past two years, we have grown enterprise value from $2.9 billion at the time of the MBO in 2016 to over $7 billion today. Further, we have strengthened our position as a leading global provider of insurance solutions and continued to build a pipeline of culturally compatible agency prospects that we look forward to welcoming into the Acrisure family. Importantly, the company continues to be primarily employee owned, with over 83% ownership in the hands of employees.”
Christopher Hardison, Managing Director, Private Debt Americas at Partners Group, added: “It has been a privilege to support Greg and Acrisure in this phenomenal growth story over the last several years, and we look forward to continuing that support with this next round of preferred equity.
“Acrisure is a market leader in its space, with a recurring revenue model, diversified revenue mix, strong free cash flow and a demonstrated ability to successfully consolidate the market – all of which helped lead to our decision to increase our investment level in the company on behalf of our clients.”
Finally, Steve Duke, Partner and Co-Head at Harvest Partners SCF, said: “Acrisure has a proven track record of growing both organically and through acquisitions across a variety of geographies, product lines and end markets and is led by a best-in-class management team. We are very excited to partner with Greg and the Acrisure team in this proprietary transaction as the Company enters its next stage of growth.”
