Brown & Brown completes GRP takeover

The US-giant, the sixth largest broker in the world, made the announcement today.

The deal to buy GRP from private equity house Searchlight Capital Partners was first revealed in March with a price-tag of £1.48bn.

It had been expected to complete in the third quarter of this year.

Founded in 1939, New York Stock Exchange listed Brown & Brown has a market cap of $16.75bn (£13.91bn) with a headcount of over 12,000 and more than 350 offices in the US and around the world.

Management

In March Brown & Brown confirmed that Mike Bruce will remain as CEO of GRP and the management structure will stay the same with the GRP brands also being kept for the foreseeable future.

The business flagged at the time that GRP had found its “forever” home and that staff will be able to buy shares in the company.

J. Powell Brown, president and CEO, said: “We are excited to establish Brown & Brown’s retail footprint in the UK with Mike Bruce and GRP. As we have worked through the regulatory approval process, we are confident that we have identified the right team that shares our culture of putting the customer first and market focus of targeted growth organically and through acquisition. The future is bright with our talented new GRP colleagues.”

Bruce commented: “It’s great news to finally complete this deal, and I look forward to an exciting and fruitful new era for everyone at GRP as part of the Brown & Brown team.”

“We share a similar business philosophy and entrepreneurial ethos and are all very excited about the opportunity to create exceptional value for our new owners and customers.”

Since the announcement of the takeover GRP has continued to buy in the UK.

In April the first purchase under the scheduled new owners was of Archenfield Insurance Management in Wales by GRP’s County Group and most recently GRP snapped up Swansea-based Prescott Jones.

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