Blog: The M&A train

Darren Murphy explores how large M&A in the broker sector filters down into the regions.

The insurance brokerage sector has seen several high-profile, multi-billion dollar M&A transactions in the last 24 months. But do these big ticket M&A transactions have any relevance to the owners of smaller specialist brokers?

The answer is complex. Whilst no direct comparison can be made in terms of valuation multiples (these larger groups will typically be acquired for 12x to 16x Ebitda), there is some relevance in terms of the wider insurance M&A market.

Global insurance groups are the