Insurtech CPP buys MGA to boost its broker distribution channel

Cyber and risk product insurtech – CPP Group is looking to boost its UK broker distribution channel through the acquisition of MGA Business & Domestic.

The deal sees CPP take over 160,000 policies including excess protection, total loss protection, legal expenses, and brown and white goods warranty.

CPP said it signals its entrance into the UK broker market in a ’very substantial way’.

B & D provides added-value insurance products in the UK market and has 15m annual GWP and posted a net profit of 600,000 in its most recent results.

”The broker channel is an important area of distribution,” managing director Michael Whitfield told Insurance Times. He hoped the deal would make CPP a serious player in terms of supplying products in the cyber risk products market.

”We like the B&D product range. It’s a series of ancillary products which are designed to add value to brokers’ propositions and we’re also developing a range of cyber and risk management insurance products also focused on the broker sector.” 

Those products will be launched in the Autumn, Whitfield added.

Route to SME

He added that brokers were a key area for distributing CPP’s product range. ”I’ve got a long history in broking myself, so it’s a logical route for me to take in running this business”, he said.

”We think brokers are a good route for us to be able to get to SME customers, but we think the role of the broker to give advice to customers is one of the differentiators and a value add in itself”, he said.

The acquisitions are part of a sequence, Whitfield explained. Irish company Blink Innovation was bought in 2017, and now comprises CPP’s ‘innovation hub’. It also made investments in KYND, a cyber risk management business, and following the B&D acquisition Whitfield said the company was open to further acquisitions where value could be added.

People moves 

As for B&D, its two founders Chris and Linda U’Dell will transfer into CPP.

”B & D is a market leader in the ancillary product field, with an array of long-standing partnership relationships and a great range of innovative products. We very much look forward to building the business further by combining CPP’s technology capabilities with Chris [U’Dell] and Linda’s [U’Dell] undoubted product expertise,” he added.

CPP’s legacy products focused on the credit card protection market. But since then it’s UK focus has been on cyber risk and other technology. These legacy policies still run on a renewal basis, but no new policies have been sold for several years, Whitfield pointed out.