After a slow start to the year as the insurance industry focused on integrating the record number of transactions which closed at year-end 2022, M&A activity has rebounded, with deal volume up 3% on a year-to-date basis, says the Sica | Fletcher Agency & Broker Buyer Index.
The Sica | Fletcher (SF) Buyer Index, which tracks 18 of the most active acquirers in the insurance brokerage space, suggests that as of YTD September 2023, SF Index members acquired 487 Agents/Brokers.
Though it notes that during 2023, volume was down slightly, with SF Index members acquiring 193 Agents/Brokers compared to 229 for the same period in 2022.
Although YTD deal volume is up 3%, the size of deals this year is smaller. Through YTD September 2022, SF Index members acquired $1.5 billion of agency and broker revenue (around 74% of the revenue acquired YTD September 2022).
Through YTD September 2022, the average size of agency acquired was $3.18 million (this measure was $4.39 million through YTD September 2022).
PCF continues 2023 at a record pace for their firm in terms of deal volume, says SF, while Acrisure and Hub remain very active acquirers with deal counts that are in line with the 2022 YTD volume.
Risk Strategies, USI and Brown & Brown are all exceeding their pace vs. 2022, while the newest members to the SF Index, Keystone and InsZone, have shown significant growth compared to YTD 2022.
Private Equity-backed firms have dominated the space consistently over the past few years, when looking at total transaction volume, and represent over 92% of SF Index transactions during YTD September 2023.
SF writes that the size of publicly-traded deals drove higher average revenue figures for public brokers even though they represent less than 8% of total deal volume.
