Eurazeo, via its Eurazeo PME subsidiary, has signed an exclusivity agreement under which it would invest, as a majority shareholder, alongside Groupe Premium’s current shareholders – Montefiore Investment, Groupe Premium’s management including Olivier Farouz, Laurent and Didier Zerbib, Benoît Jauvert and other key executives, together with independent agent partners.
The transaction would value Groupe Premium at EUR290 million and Eurazeo PME’s investment should be around EUR100 million, depending on the level of reinvestment by current shareholders.
Groupe Premium was founded in 2000 and is France’s leading independent broker for life insurance and retirement savings solutions aimed at the “mass affluent” segment, the fastest-growing part of the market. Through its Predictis and Capfinances brands, Groupe Premium is the largest independent distributor for leading insurers – Swiss Life, Aviva and Groupama Gan Vie – in terms of quality inflows collection.
The group also has an asset management company, Flornoy, which manages several SRI-accredited thematic funds. Groupe Premium relies on an exceptional commercial network consisting of more than 600 independent agent partners, who cover an increasing proportion of France and offer clients a comprehensive approach to wealth management.
The group generated EUR66.7 million of revenue in 2020, up 28.5 per cent relative to 2019, despite the Covid-19 crisis. The shared ambition of Eurazeo PME, Montefiore Investment and the management team is to accelerate the group’s growth by continuing to expand its network and geographical coverage, by an active buy-and-build strategy with some targets already identified, and by supporting the group’s development in key areas such as digitalisation, product offering diversification and CSR.
Pierre Meignen and Benjamin Hara, members of Eurazeo PME’s Executive Board, say: “We would be delighted to support Groupe Premium in this new chapter of its development and to contribute to its success. Our ambition will be to help Olivier Farouz’s team execute their accelerated growth strategy, which aims to build an industry leader in the transformation of the life insurance and retirement savings market.”
Olivier Farouz, Chairman and Founder of Groupe Premium, adds: “I would be very happy to welcome Eurazeo as an investor in Groupe Premium. Eurazeo’s teams have shown great professionalism and proposed a very exciting new challenge, but most importantly they have understood the DNA of Groupe Premium, which is above all a disruptive, people-driven business. Groupe Premium’s fundamental values are support, social mobility and meritocracy. This approach will be a major advantage in helping us realise our ambitious project, particularly in terms of acquisitions.”
Eric Bismuth, Chairman of Montefiore Investment, concludes: “We are very proud of Groupe Premium’s transformation since we invested into the group in April 2018. Driven by its management team, it has achieved faster organic growth by rolling out its distribution model, which is almost unique in the market, while carrying out several transformative mergers, particularly with Cap Finances and Flornoy. We look forward to welcoming Eurazeo as fellow investors, because this will enable the group to begin a new phase in its development.”
