Six private investors back buyout deal

CFC Underwriting will be looking to get into the management liability market and expand its professional indemnity offering following its MBO announced earlier today.

Managing director David Walsh told Insurance Times that all staff were given an option to buy shares in the company after Hyperion reached an agreement to sell its majority stake in the MGA to private investors and the management team.

The cost of the deal was not disclosed.

Hyperion invested in CFC 12 years ago when the company was called Click for Cover but with the intention to sell up at some stage, according to Walsh.

Walsh said he was excited by the prospect of taking the company forward with a young team and a good sized operation.

“I think we have got to a certain scale to get all the processes, the IT, people and efficiencies into the business,” he said.

“You get to that stage and you feel there is a real opportunity here. By the very nature of us as an MGA we tend to be much nimbler than a typical insurer.”

Listing the Apple Consultants Network and the Zumba Fitness Instructors Network among its customer base, Walsh said that CFC would continue to focus on the small business and affinity market and to pick up business from the large carriers.

Taking a deliberate strategy to steer clear of private equity houses, he said that six private investors had been brought on board including original Benfield partner Mike Rees and former Lloyd Thompson MD and RK Harrison chairman Richard Corfield, who takes over as executive chairman on 1 October.

CFC currently has 49 staff on its books with expansion and no redundancies planned, according to Walsh.

Going forward, he said the company would concentrate on its strongest markets in the UK, US, Canada and Australia, as well as Israel, Malta, Gibraltar, Sweden and Spain, where it has a presence, as it sought to attract business that didn’t normally come to London.

“We are going to aim at small businesses all round the world by delivering really good product to a local broker really seamlessly while competing with local carriers,” he said.

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