Acrisure Secures a $2B Investment
Acrisure, one of the top 4 insurance brokerages in the US, has announced that a group of investors led by funds managed by Blackstone’s GSO Capital Partners and Tactical Opportunities businesses (“Blackstone”), have significantly increased their investment in the company. Partners Group (on behalf of its clients) also increased their investment, and along with Harvest Partners SCF, who is also investing to support this transaction, the three investors now have invested or committed to $2b of preferred equity in the company. The investment implies a valuation for Acrisure of more than $7b and, pro forma for this transaction, Acrisure remains over 83% owned by its management team and agency partners.
Acrisure has grown from $650m in revenue to approximately $1.5b in revenue over the past two years. The company completed 92 acquisitions in 2017 and expects to complete over 100 by year-end 2018. In 2016, Acrisure completed a $2.9b management-led buyout (MBO) in a transaction led by Greg Williams, Acrisure’s President and Chief Executive Officer and co-founder, and a consortium of minority investors. Blackstone and Partners Group were part of the initial group of investors supporting the MBO.
“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.” – Greg Williams.
