Starr, a global investment and insurance organization, has completed its acquisition of IQUW Group, widening its specialty insurance and reinsurance platform across the London market, Bermuda, and UK retail motor.
The deal gives Starr a broader and more diversified business across specialist classes and market segments.
With IQUW now inside the group, Starr has strengthened its London market position and pushed its managing agency to ninth place at Lloyd’s.
The company said it will keep a strong focus on underwriting expertise along with broker and client service. For clients and brokers, the pitch is broader products, faster decisions, stronger capital, and wider global reach.
The transaction also gives Starr a bigger reinsurance platform. IQUW Re Bermuda and IQUW’s London reinsurance operations will now trade as Starr Re, writing the group’s inward reinsurance business and expanding its ability to offer a more diversified book across geographies and lines.
Starr said the business will benefit from the group’s capital base, giving it more flexibility to deploy capacity through market cycles and support clients across the reinsurance market.
In 2025, IQUW Group wrote $1.88 bn in gross written premium. That total includes business from IQUW Syndicate 1856, ERS Syndicate 218, the largest specialist motor insurer at Lloyd’s in the UK, and IQUW Re Bermuda.
Syndicate 1856 will be rebranded as Starr. IQUW Re will trade as Starr Re. ERS will keep its existing brand, given its established position in the UK motor market. Starr’s Syndicate 1919 will not change brand.
Jeff Greenberg, chairman and co-chief executive officer of Starr, said closing the deal moves the company further along its strategy to build a global, diversified underwriting business.
He said the combined group is now a larger and more durable platform with the scale and expertise to compete across international markets and deliver long-term growth. “The completion of this transaction advances Starr’s strategy to build a global, diversified, best-in-class underwriting business. I am delighted to welcome our new colleagues to Starr,” said Jeff Greenberg.
Together, we are a larger, more resilient platform with the scale and expertise to compete and win across global markets and deliver sustainable, long-term growth.
Jeff Greenberg, chairman and co-chief executive officer of Starr
Steve Blakey, president and chief executive officer of Starr Insurance Holdings, said the company is bringing its teams together while aiming to keep support seamless for clients and brokers.
He said the combined organisation will stay focused on service while giving the market access to a broader range of specialist solutions.
Peter Bilsby, who will lead Starr’s international business, said the transaction marks an important point for the team that built IQUW since launch.
He said the original goal was to create a high-performing specialist platform built around talent, data, and technology. As part of Starr, he said, the business now moves into a stronger and more diversified global group.
The transaction has received all required regulatory approvals. Financial terms were not disclosed.
