Howden begins new chapter with £1bn for fresh investment

Peter Blanc appointed Head of M&A

London, 21 April 2023 - Howden Group Holdings today announces that it has successfully raised more than £875m across both debt and equity, with total cash and facilities available for investment in M&A, new initiatives and talent in excess of £1bn.

On 24 March, Howden finalised a $500m seven year term loan, with more than 60 lenders providing capital, including more than 10 new lenders to the Group.  The Group also increased its revolving credit facility from £185m to £360m across a range of banking relationships.

Following the completion of the acquisition of TigerRisk Partners in January 2023 Howden now comprises the leading international retail broker outside the US, one of four top tier reinsurance brokers, and the largest international MGA.  With the announcement of pro-forma results for 2022 of in excess of £2bn in revenue, achieved through both market leading organic growth (19% in FY22, 19% in FY21) as well as M&A and other growth initiatives, the fresh investment heralds the start of the next phase of its development.

Attracting talent through the acquisition of entrepreneurial businesses with standout expertise and through investment in new hires remains at the heart of the Group’s growth strategy.

Peter Blanc, Executive Chairman of Howden UK&I, will now take on the new role of Head of M&A, reporting to David Howden, CEO Howden Group, effective immediately.  He will support David and the leadership team to deliver the Group’s strategy to build out its geographic reach and product expertise where it can make a difference for clients across retail broking, reinsurance broking and underwriting.

David Howden, CEO, Howden Group Holdings said: “With the formation of HowdenTiger in January we have completed the architecture of the Group.  With the £2bn revenue milestone passed and with 14,500 employees across 50 countries and $30bn of GWP, we have the scale and leverage to be the difference that clients and talent are seeking.  And now, following the £5bn we have invested over the last three years, we have raised a further £1bn giving us the financial firepower to accelerate at pace by joining with the best businesses and brightest talent who are looking for a forever home where they can continue to deliver their expertise and service in a culture that cherishes entrepreneurial spirit.

“Our focus now turns to three key areas: unlocking the extraordinary value within the Group by harnessing our collective power; attracting talent and aligned businesses, and; investing in our infrastructure to ensure our experts are empowered to do their best for our clients.

“It is Peter who, in bringing Aston Lark to Howden, coined the phrase ‘forever home’.  Having built Aston Lark from the ground up through his well-recognised ability to identify and execute high quality transactions with a deep-rooted cultural alignment he is obviously very well-placed to support me and our leadership teams in the further development of our very healthy M&A pipeline as we begin the next chapter of our development.  With our leading position in the UK now established, we will continue to focus heavily on our European reach as well as developing our wider global footprint with acquisitions of high quality businesses where we can bring choice to clients.

“Our unique capital model has been the engine of our journey.  I am thrilled that the clarity of our model allows us to raise competitively priced debt in extraordinary capital markets conditions.  The longevity of our equity partners, General Atlantic (2013), CDPQ (2018) and Hg Capital (2021), and their belief in and support for our model is borne out in their continued investment in the Group, with each investing £450m since 2021.  But most of all it is our employee ownership heart of which I am proud.  In our most recent internal share offer we welcomed 1,000 new employees as shareholders.  4,500 of us now own a share in the business we are building.”