Activity levels within the European insurance M&A market remain strong, with 789 transactions announced in 2025 across the insurance brokerage, managing general agent, insurance service provider and carrier sectors, up 14% compared with 694 deals in 2024, according to analysis by FTI Consulting.
However, FTI Consulting’s latest European Insurance M&A Barometer revealed that a geographic shift is underway. Activity in the UK and Ireland fell 23% year-on-year, making it one of the quietest periods for the market over the past five years, although the region remained the most active with 219 deals.
Continental European markets, including the DACH region (Germany, Austria and Switzerland), Benelux, Italy, France, Iberia, Central and Eastern Europe and the Nordics, saw significant deal activity. Intense competition for premium platforms pushed valuations to as high as 18 times EBITDA in these markets.
The report found that the DACH region was the second most active market in 2025 with 143 transactions, a 35% increase compared with 2024. Iberia followed with 141 deals, representing a 21% increase.
Strategic buyers and PE-backed platforms, as well as PE firms, are increasingly moving away from conventional roll-up and buy-and-build acquisition strategies. Instead, inorganic growth is being pursued through a more targeted focus on specialty brokers and MGAs that offer scalable, portfolio-wide benefits and diversification across both product lines and geographies.
“The insurance M&A market in the UK and Ireland has entered a new phase,” said Jeremy Riley, a Senior Advisor in the EMEA Insurance M&A practice at FTI Consulting. “Activity levels remain strong, but there are simply fewer big deals around to command investor attention. We have seen several years of rate-driven revenue growth, however carriers, MGAs and distribution businesses are now operating in soft market conditions where performance will need to come from genuine, underlying growth and delivering operational efficiencies.
“The DACH region continues to set the pace in European insurance M&A, and we are seeing rising levels of activity in areas such as Italy and across Central and Eastern Europe.
“The next chapter in European M&A will be defined by buyers who are more selective, more strategic and increasingly seeking to operate cross-border.”
Insurance brokers and service providers continued to dominate the market, accounting for more than 87% of all transactions in 2025, with 596 broker deals and 94 service-provider deals completed.
The number of transactions completed by private equity firms remained active, increasing from 61 deals in 2024 to 69 in 2025. Consolidation activity among PE-backed portfolio companies also rose, from 376 deals to 402, with this group once again emerging as the European market’s leading acquirers.
Non-PE-backed strategic buyers gained further market share, completing 318 deals, up from 257. This reflects continued appetite among global consolidators and regional operators to use M&A to build scale, fill product gaps and expand geographically.
Riley continued, “The insurance distribution sector is now defined by unprecedented PE ownership, however, many of these funds are approaching the end of their investment cycles, which will lead to a wave of exits and strategic repositioning in 2026.
“We are also in a period where refinancing needs will create selective buyer opportunities. All this points to an active 2026 market, but one that will favour well-capitalised buyers with clear strategic objectives who can move quickly and can optimise performance under new ownership.”
