Lockton sells retail divisions after strategic review
Peter Cullum’s acquisition vehicle, Cullum Capital Ventures, has acquired several divisions of Lockton International’s retail arm worth over £40m in gross written premium.
The deal, which completed at the end of last week, will see CCV acquire business units of Lockton dealing predominantly with UK-based SME clients.
72 staff will transfer from Lockton’s retail offices in Guernsey, Jersey, Southampton, Newcastle and Nottingham.
The business units together have a combined brokerage of £6m.
In a statement Lockton said: “Lockton International has carried out a strategic review of its retail operations. As a result, we have decided to sell our operations in the Channel Islands and Southampton. In addition to the operations in the Channel Islands and Southampton, Lockton International’s Business Risk Solutions operations in Nottingham and Newcastle will also be sold.
“The retail market remains the foundation for Lockton in the UK and we are continuing to invest in our people and infrastructure. Our focus throughout Lockton is on our clients and ensuring that we provide them with the best possible service, solutions and expertise."
“The retail market remains the foundation for Lockton in the UK and we are continuing to invest in our people and infrastructure.
Lockton
The acquisition is CCV’s largest to date, approximately double the size of its previous largest, Morgan Law, which was acquired last November.
Tim Johnson, chief executive of CCV, said the deals were not a planned move away from the company’s acquisition strategy of buying small brokerages. He said: “It just so happens that this deal includes a number of divisions within the same company.”
He said there was one other deal due to be completed imminently with five others in due diligence. These would take CCV’s controlled premium to £200m GWP by the end of 2008.
Meanwhile, CCV has appointed of five former members of the Erinaceous Homelet sales team.
Dave Wilson, John Chandler, Mitch Thomson, Tony Preece and Rob Battersea, who left Erinaceous in October, have all taken new sales roles with MARAS, part of CCV.
They are joined at CCV by Ian Sharpe, who was formerly head of trading at Erinaceous Letsure.
