Agenda: That elusive crock of gold

The consolidation of the retail broking sector started in 1998 with the creation of Towergate but gathered pace in early 2000 through to 2008. In that period, some £3.6bn of commercial business was acquired, which equates to 25% of the total commercial insurance sector in the UK.

In that hectic period of 2007/8 - prior to the changes in capital gains tax - more than £2bn changed hands, which is an enormous amount of money for a comparatively small sector. Some of the consolidators have been acquired - Country Mutual, Smart and Cook and Layton Blackham - and now there are five major players left:
• Towergate/CCV, backed by loan finance from Lloyds TSB;
• Oval, backed by private equity firm Caledonia;
• Jelf, AIM listed but now backed by Private Equity company, Capital Z;
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