Private Equity and Mergers and Acquisitions Initiative
Engaging professionally with investment businesses and their portfolio companies
At PIB Insurance Brokers, we are proud of our extensive connections in the world of private equity.
We have launched a guide outlining our capabilities and what we are able to offer to private equity firms and to their investment portfolios.
As a highly active member of the Private Equity community completing over fifteen acquisitions a year, we fully understand the dynamics of deal flow and the need for timely support around each transaction. With our extensive knowledge and understanding of private equity, we are able to broker even distressed business into a market that is increasingly difficult.
Our range of expertise allows us to engage professionally with investment businesses and, on a wider scale, their portfolio companies. We have broken down the overall strategic services that we can offer into three tactical compartments:
Protecting the Transaction
Every transaction and business is unique, and we provide protection through pre-transactional due diligence, protection of the transaction itself and post-transactional cover.
Insurance Due Diligence
In advance of any transaction taking place, we are able to undertake a review of the insurance programme to identify uninsured risks, areas of duplication, gaps in cover and the extent of liability being accepted by the purchaser.
PIB Group is well experienced in the world of Private Equity and is considered to be one of the more acquisitive insurance brokerage houses. We are continually performing Due Diligence (DD) and understand the full extent that appropriate DD can perform both in assessing a target and its risks alongside its function in the event of any subsequent issues.
We will be pleased to perform any insurance DD required when an asset is being analysed and can then map this into any placement requirements. This can be performed on a traffic light triage basis with which you will be familiar.
Transactional Covers
To protect the firm, we can transfer overt liabilities such as Warranty and Indemnity issues, or known Tax risks in the event of a sale or acquisition.
Rather than allowing the insurance placement to dictate the deal terms, we support it by providing:
- Risk Management
- Tax Liability
- Title to Shares
- Litigation Funding
- Personal Guarantee
- Intellectual Property
In the event of exit via IPO we can also support the transaction by means of entity insurance that covers the placing document.
Protecting the Portfolio Assets
Given the wide nature of any portfolio of investments, the potential insurance requirements will need to be managed by a wide spectrum of expertise.
Our approach is consultative and collaborative throughout the life cycle of your investment. We work to fully understand your risk appetite and portfolio focus and then leverage this in the insurance market to deliver those benefits your scale should rightfully expect.
The insurance market is going through a ‘hard’ market cycle and has shown itself to be unwilling to be proactive to assist here without very careful management. At PIB we are adept at maintaining insurer risk appetite and breadth of coverage for PE backed companies.
As well as the more traditional insurance placement, we work with our partners to provide solutions for:
- Workplace Pensions
- Key Person and Critical Illness
- Property and Legal Indemnities
- Rights of Light
- Trade Credit and Political Risk
We can also assist in the sourcing of nonrecourse litigation funding and strategic use of After the Event (“ATE”) legal expenses cover to de-risk portfolio companies’ pursuit of valuable commercial claims whilst protecting capital ratios and eliminating potential cost liability
Protecting the Private Equity Hub
There are complexities and exposures of a Private Equity business that a traditional business would not have, and therefore it is important that this is understood by both broker and insurer in order to provide a package of specialist covers to protect the business and its Directors.
The combined experience of our team ensures that you will be represented in the insurance market both professionally and purposefully.
The pillars of a successful financial lines placement start with the essential policies such as Directors & Officers (D&O) and Professional Indemnity (PI). We also encourage discussion around other key areas of risk such as:
- Employment Practices Liability
- Cyber Liability & Breach Response
- Crime & Fidelity
We recommend that both D&O and PI be placed with the same insurance provider whenever possible. This means that in the event of a claim which potentially falls to both policies there will not be a coverage dispute between competing sets of underwriters.
Furthermore, we have designed wordings which reflect the structures used and risks contemplated
Meet The Team - David Walters, Head of Financial Lines, PIB Insurance Brokers
David is a highly experienced insurance professional with extensive knowledge of financial lines and transactional risks. He has a proven track record of business transformation, building profitable business units by delivering outstanding innovative client service, and market and team leadership. David uses insights gained in his senior broking and underwriting roles in top tier global companies to drive effective client risk solutions.
David is also Head of PIB’s PEMA Practice.
Email: David.Walters@pib-insurance.com
Mobile: 07522 229681