Private equity house buys Insurecom parent for $1.8bn

Private equity firm Hellman & Friedman has agreed to buy US insurance software house Applied Systems in a transaction valued at $1.8bn (£1.1bn).

Fellow private equity firm JMI Equity will be a co-investor in the deal.

Applied Systems’ senior management will maintain a “significant” ownership in the company.

Applied Systems bought UK broker software company Insurecom in August.

Applied Systems as a whole is known for its agency management systems and development of data exchanges between agencies, brokers and clients.

Its customer base comprises 12,000 agencies and brokers and 350 insurers across the US, Canada and the UK.

Applied Systems chief executive Reid French said: “All of us at Applied are pleased to be partnering with H&F and JMI Equity as they share our commitment to revolutionise the global business of insurance by investing behind the company’s unique product vision for the benefit of our customers.”

Hellman & Friedman managing director David Tunnell added: “We believe Applied Systems is a uniquely positioned company in the global insurance software market.

“It combines the largest user base in the industry with Applied Epic, the fastest growing new agency management system, to be the market leader in insurance technology for deployments both on premise and in the cloud.”