Lee Anderson: SRG looks ‘east of east London’ for international focus

Lee Anderson, group deputy chief executive at intermediary organisation Specialist Risk Group (SRG), has a lucky chair from which he conducts the majority of his acquisition related conversations.

Located in the wood panelled privacy of members club Ten Trinity Square – a mere stone’s throw away from SRG’s London office at One America Square – it would be fair to assume that Anderson’s lucky chair has been working overtime of late, as the intermediary secured 12 new firms for its stable over the course of 2024.

Speaking exclusively to Insurance Times, Anderson explains that SRG’s acquisition strategy has become more nuanced since SRG announced its third batch of investors in May 2024, which includes New York-headquartered private equity firm Warburg Pincus and Singapore-based investment company Temasek – two businesses that typically operate very different investment “horizons”, Anderson says.

This backing differs from SRG’s historic UK and Ireland focused investors of old, including Pollen Street Capital from 2019 and HGGC from 2021, in order to finally fulfil an element of the broker’s “original plan” that has so far been left on the back burner – the capability to “internationalise some of our specialisms”.

This long-held desire swiftly came to fruition after the investment deal completed in September last year, with SRG promptly purchasing Singapore broker HL Suntek in October 2024.

Anderson says: “Our first investor was very much a UK and Irish investor. Our second investor equally had a very defined geographic appetite and you’ll have seen that in our progress in the UK – we acquired lots of retail, wholesale and underwriting businesses.

“The part of our model that we never managed to maximise and optimise was [the] internationalisation of our specialisms. Warburg Pincus and Temasek have a very international, globalist outlook.

“It’s no coincidence that our first significant overseas investment was made with our new investors.

“Scale, ambition and international bias to an extent that we’ve never had before will [be] the hallmarks of this particular investment cycle.”

Anderson emphasises that it is purely SRG’s own ambitions and growth to date that steered it towards sourcing new, slightly different investment partners – although he would not reveal the exact amounts Warburg Pincus and Temasek are putting into the business.

“We’ve only ever moved investor because we become too big for the for the fund they operate in,” he explains. “We hit £1bn premium [in 2024] as a group. We broke 700 people in the company. We made our first international investment.

“[Warburg Pincus and Temasek have] come in at the end of a very sharp growth trajectory and are joining what looks to be an even sharper growth trajectory, with a wider appetite and wider footprint. It’s exciting.”

Internationalisation

SRG – which includes a UK focused specialist broker, a wholesale Lloyd’s and London market broking business and an MGA – has started 2025 as it means to go on, building upon its newly minted Asia Pacific presence to expand into continental Europe.

In January, the intermediary announced that it had agreed to buy German broker Ecclesia Group’s assets in Belgium and the Netherlands, adding seven new businesses and 700 employees to SRG’s roster.

Uniquely, Ecclesia Group is additionally set to become a shareholder of SRG alongside Warburg Pincus and Temasek. Currently, “just over 300” SRG employees are also direct shareholders in the business.

Anderson confirms “there will be much more” acquisition activity to come in 2025, with SRG’s “pipeline always building” – in particular, around firms that are situated “east of east London”, adhering to the organisation’s international ambitions.

However, it is not just the location of acquisition targets that are piquing SRG’s interest nowadays, but also how international a firm’s products are.

Alongside continuing to lean “quite heavily [towards] specialist niches”, Anderson explains that SRG is “spending more time focusing on product which is itself global”.

He continues: “As opposed to acquiring a UK product that sells well in the UK and only has the UK as a marketplace, [SRG is looking for] products that by their very nature are global products. So, you have the choice as to whether you buy [the product] in the UK or you buy it in Frankfurt or New York.

“It’s keeping specialism at the core [of our strategy] still, but that is a subtle nuance that’s changed.”

SRG is not just planting its flag in every territory, however.

Anderson explains that the broker is being very intentional about the “scale” and “leadership” of the businesses it is considering as international acquisition targets, rather than simply buying a one-man-band in a certain geography in order to boast an operational presence there.

This approach gives SRG “the confidence to be able to delegate authority and delegate the delivery of the culture because [this is] just logistically more difficult” when offices are further apart – especially from the firm’s London headquarters.

Culture first

Although the perimeters of SRG’s acquisition net have been distinctly broadened following its new investment last year, some facets of the intermediary’s M&A strategy remain decidedly unchanged – such as its preference to conduct direct deals with owner managers and an associated focus on culture.

Anderson says: “We have quite a strict filter [for M&A] in terms of not just the economics, but the cultural aspects of the business and where it fits.

“What we always say is unless we can do three things together that it would be very hard for either [business] to do separately, then it’s probably not the right deal for us.

“The idea is to quickly do three things together that [the two businesses] couldn’t do on their own and then immediately you have a joint endeavour. So, the acquisition becomes the springboard for what comes next, not the end of a lifetime’s work.”

Anderson adds that after making 30 acquisitions since SRG’s brand formed in 2019, the wider insurance market is now well versed in the types of businesses that could find a good home with SRG.

“With very few exceptions, the companies don’t end up in the wrong place,” he says.

“Our model is very much if we can acquire a specialism with good leadership, then we will continue to invest in that same sector, in complementary products, so we don’t buy two of the same thing.”

An example of this approach would be SRG’s entry and continued investment into the equine market.

This started with its purchase of Kbis British Equestrian Insurance in January 2021. Anderson says SRG was introduced to Kbis by advisors after market participants began to understand the intermediary’s determination to be known for delivering its slogan: ‘Difficult done well’.

“We weren’t looking to buy an equine business,” Anderson adds. “But [advisors] said the founders of [Kbis] sound exactly like you. And we met them and went ‘we should do this’.”

SRG continued to build out its operations for this class of business in 2024, buying Carriagehouse Insurance in July and Stonehatch in October. Anderson confirms that SRG has further equine centred businesses in its M&A pipeline for 2025.

“It’s not always about scale. It’s about the things that [M&A] unlocks,” he adds.

Year of learning

Although SRG has clearly kickstarted its international adventure, Anderson notes that 2025 will also be “a year of learning” for the business.

This involves a focus on “personal career development opportunities” for the firm’s existing staff, ensuring that they are not ignored amid “the shiny toy syndrome” of newer businesses joining the SRG fold.

However, Anderson’s excitement about the broker’s international direction of travel – backed by Warburg Pincus and Temasek – is evident and infectious.

And he insists this strategy is not simply jumping on the bandwagon of insurance commentators saying that UK-based acquisition targets have dried up following years of heavy, consistent consolidation.

“Our plan was never [to] set up just to acquire businesses, so it doesn’t form part of the underlying DNA of what we measure our success on,” Anderson explains.

“If we can’t get the right combination of people fit, economics and culture, we just don’t do [deals].”

Sourcing firms to fill its M&A pipeline does not seem to be a problem, however. Anderson says: “We’ve bought 30 businesses [in total] and our pipeline is richer than it’s ever been.”