INSIGHT REPORT CALENDAR

NEWSLETTER

Like this article?

Sign up to our free newsletter

Hutton Collins sells Lloyds broker Windsor Partners

Hutton Collins Partners has sold portfolio company Windsor Limited, a leading Lloyd’s specialty insurance broker, to Hyperion Insurance Group Limited. The sale remains subject to FSA approval.

Hutton Collins backed the management and employees of Windsor in a public to private buy out in 2007. A GBP15m preferred equity investment from Hutton Collins Capital Partners II LP, alongside Windsor’s management and employee equity reinvestment, enabled the team to increase their shareholdings from 10% to 78%, with Hutton Collins holding the remaining 22%. Against a lacklustre market backdrop, this concentration of team ownership helped fuel a five year period of sustained organic growth during which the company’s brokerage income increased from GBP21m to GBP37m and profits before interest, tax and depreciation doubled from GBP6m to GBP12m. During this time, Windsor successfully twice upsized its banking facilities.

Windsor CEO John Bennett says: “This deal is great news for Windsor; it reflects our hard work over the last five years in building one of the UK’s most profitable insurance brokers and the Hyperion platform will enable us to take our business to the next stage, supporting our objective of expanding our broking presence in the UK and internationally. We have enjoyed our partnership with Hutton Collins, who have supported us in our ambitions throughout. A key objective for us in our 2007 take private was to be able to motivate our team with equity, and we felt the Hutton Collins approach allowed us to do that better than the other available alternatives. Five years later our employee shareholders are now seeing the rewards of their efforts.”

Like this article? Sign up to our free newsletter

FEATURED

Tech Stocks

MOST RECENT

FURTHER READING