Related News

Specialist Risk Group enters credit and political risk market, makes double hire

Brokers team up to launch Africa-focused credit and political risk unit

Broker WTW buys Global Commercial Credit in US expansion

Williams takes over as Allianz Trade chief in UK and Ireland

The Hartford appoints CPRI head for UK and Europe

BPL has secured a private equity investment that will end the specialist insurance broker’s long run as a fully employee-owned company.  

Preservation Capital Partners (PCP), a London-headquartered private equity firm, will take a minority stake in the broker during the final quarter of the year, subject to conditions and regulatory approval. BPL declined to disclose the size or value of PCP’s stake.  

BPL is one of the few brokers to specialise in trade credit insurance, and became an employee-owned company around a decade after it was founded in 1983.  

But the broker’s founder, Charles Berry, says now that the credit and political risk insurance market has grown, “it is time to revert our origins by partnering with external minority shareholders, while retaining majority employee ownership and our specialisation”, and adds that PCP will bring “financial firepower”.  

Sian Aspinall, BPL group chief executive, tells GTR that despite organic growth “we have our ambitions to accelerate this rate of growth to match our influence in the credit and political risk space”.  

“External minority investment, of course, is a powerful tool here,” she says.  

The maturing of the credit insurance market, which includes many large multi-line insurers and specialist outfits alongside traditional providers such as Allianz Trade, Atradius and Coface, means it is now more attractive to investors, Aspinall adds.  

BPL’s broking entity reported an operating margin of almost 46% for the year ending March 31 last year and after-tax profit of £7.8mn, down on £8.5mn in 2023.  

The group parent company, which includes all of BPL’s global entities, made a £20.5mn profit during the same period, from £69.8mn in turnover.  

The market for credit and political risk cover is “in good health and demonstrating significant resilience” despite heightened geopolitical tensions, BPL said in the accounts.  

It said a recent regulatory reform in the EU that made credit insurance a less effective method for banks to shave their capital requirements had caused “no evidenced deterioration” in policy purchases.  

PCP’s website says BPL has a “highly attractive financial profile, with strong visibility over future revenues through fully contracted income on multi-year policies”, and notes that the broker could leverage PCP’s experience in insurance distribution.  

PCP managing partner Jatender Aujla says his firm is “delighted to partner with a leading specialist broker led by an outstanding management team”. 

“We have been following BPL’s market-leading performance over a number of years and have been impressed by its outstanding growth and unparalleled reputation,” he adds.  

The investment in BPL adds to PCP’s portfolio of insurance investments, which also includes broker BMS and Optio, a managing general agent.