Peter Blanc to oversee £1bn M&A warchest in new Howden role

The new role comes as the broking group sealed a £500m seven-year loan with more than 60 lenders, including 10 fresh lenders.

The revolving credit facility – a form of overdraft – was boosted from £185m to £360m with banks.

Blanc left his role as chairman of Howden UK and Ireland to support chief executive David Howden as they scour the globe for purchases. He had previously laid out ambitions to double the size of Aston Lark after Howden snapped it up in October 2020. 

Blanc to report into CEO Howden

Howden said: “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.”

Howden said the group now has the ‘scale and leverage’ to differentiate service in the minds of clients.

Howden outlines ambitions 

The business is supported by key investors including General Atlantic which came onboard in 2013, CDPQ in 2018 and Hg Capital in 2021.

Howden added: “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 (£24.1bn) 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.”

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