Howden acquires St Giles Legal & Professional Risks to confirm position as leader in uk professional indemnity market

Howden, the independent insurance broker with employee ownership at its heart, announced today that it has reached agreement to acquire St Giles Legal & Professional Risks (‘St Giles’), a professional indemnity insurance broker specialising in the UK solicitor sector, a market in which Howden is already a leading provider. This move further cements Howden as the adviser of choice in the professional indemnity space, bringing the number of UK law firms itrepresentsto over 1,000.

Mark Westgarth, Managing Director, UK Regions, Howden Broking comments: “St Giles is a highly regarded and specialist broker of professional indemnity insurance. We are delighted to be bringing our talents together for the long-term benefit of our collective client base.

We can offer greater scale and a depth of expertise that, combined with the experts at St Giles, will deliver better solutions for our mutual clients, in what are currently very challenging market conditions for them. We always strive to be part of the solution to tough challenges and our investment in additional expertise again demonstrates our strong and long term commitment to the UK legal sector.

St Giles is a company that we at Howden have known for many years. As is so often the case with our acquisitions, we buy companies with whom we have a long history and have built up trust and respect.”

Senior Directors Mark Thomsen and Simon Gale will take up positions in Howden’s 300+ strong Financial Lines Group with fellow Director, Malcolm Gordon, providing consultancy support.

Mark Thomsen says of the acquisition: “Simon and I are delighted to be joining Howden, which is a well-respected leader in the professional indemnity market. We know this is in the best interests of our clients and we are pleased to be joining such an experienced team.”