Sale of Hettle Andrews to AssuredPartners agreed
FSP corporate team advises founders on sale.
Field Seymour Parkes is pleased to announce the agreed sale of Hettle Andrews & Associates Limited. The transaction is subject to customary approval by the Financial Conduct Authority and the deal terms have not been disclosed.
Based in Birmingham, Hettle Andrews is an integrated risk management and insurance broking firm, focused on the Education, Charity and Corporate sectors in the United Kingdom. Co-founded in 2004 by Jon Hettle and Jo Andrews, the business employs over 30 people and records gross written premiums of over £20m per annum for its clients.
AssuredPartners is the fastest-growing, independent insurance agency in the United States. Founded in 2011, Assured Partners has acquired in excess of 280 agencies, with offices in 30 states and circa 6000 employees. Following the recent sale of AssuredPartners to GTCR, the acquisition is a sign of intent to grow the AssuredPartners footprint across the UK, and to further develop its operations in London during GTCR’s ownership.
David Heathfield, CEO AssuredPartners London, said: “We have been extremely impressed with the manner in which Jo and Jon run their operation and we are delighted that Hettle Andrews is now part of the rapidly growing AssuredPartners’ family. Jo and Jon are leaders in their field and their expertise and knowledge will be invaluable to us in helping to achieve our strategic goal of expanding our presence in the UK regional retail broker market.
Jon Hettle, Director and co-founder said: “All of the directors of Hettle Andrews are delighted to have concluded the sale of the business to AssuredPartners. As part of a wider group, we have considerable opportunity to grow together and to provide the same great service to existing and new clients. This is a new phase in the development of Hettle Andrews and we are excited about the future working together. We found ourselves in the privileged position of having a great deal of interest from potential suitors but felt that AssuredPartners offered something different to the existing acquirers in the marketplace.”
Jo Andrews and Jon Hettle added “Penelope and her team managed our transaction with total professionalism and efficiency. From the very beginning, we set our expectations with regard to response times and Penelope and her team exceeded all of these. All of the FSP team were an absolute pleasure to deal with and provided us with a refreshing view of working with lawyers! We would have no hesitation in recommending Penelope’s expertise and management to any Company going through M&A.”
Penelope Garden, corporate partner at FSP commented “we were absolutely delighted to advise Jo and Jon on this transaction which will allow them to continue to run the business day to day whilst finding the right long-term owner for the continued success of the business.”
Penelope led the team at FSP with assistance from David Clay (associate, employment). Ian Curtis and James Cooper of Transcend Corporate provided corporate finance advice.
