Genstar Capital has acquired Acrisure, the 50th largest privately owned insurance agency in the United States.
Acrisure’s product lines include property & casualty, employee benefits and related third party administrator services, human resource outsourcing, loss & claims management, surety bonding and personal lines coverage. The company was co-founded in 2005 by CEO Greg Williams to acquire independent insurance agencies across the Midwest and since then has completed 26 acquisitions. The company is based in Grand Rapids, MI (www.acrisure.com).
“I am pleased to be partnering with the team at Genstar who bring a proven track record of growing and building a company like ours in the insurance industry. We have a shared vision to continue Acrisure’s growth both organically and through strategic acquisitions and Genstar is the ideal partner who brings additional resources and valuable expertise as we acquire strategic add-on opportunities and accelerate the growth of the Acrisure portfolio,” said Mr. Williams.
J. Ryan Clark, a Managing Director at Genstar, as well as Tony Salewski and David Golde of Genstar will join the Acrisure Board of Directors. In addition, John Addeo, retired CEO of Genstar’s former portfolio company, Confie Seguros, will also join the Acrisure Board.
“Greg Williams is a highly successful and capable leader who has built Acrisure into one of the leading insurance agencies in the Midwest. We were attracted by the company’s historically strong performance, both organically and through acquisitions, its broad set of capabilities, and the high quality of the management team and local agency partners. By working with Greg and his team we believe we have an opportunity to leverage Genstar’s extensive insurance executive network to accelerate growth and expand the company’s footprint nationally,” said Mr. Clark.
Genstar pursued a similar growth strategy with its former portfolio company Confie Seguros, which Genstar helped build into a national insurance distribution company primarily focused on the needs of Hispanic consumers. Genstar partnered with John Addeo and other insurance industry executives in 2008 to establish Confie Seguros and grew the company to over 300 retail locations with annual revenues approaching $200 million by 2012. Significant value was created through an acquisition program (38 add-on acquisitions under Genstar ownership), organic EBITDA growth and cash flow generation. Genstar sold Confie Seguros in November 2012 to ABRY Partners.
Genstar Capital is a private equity firm that invests in middle-market companies and builds value in those businesses by utilizing the expertise of its operating partners. Genstar has more than $4 billion of committed capital under management and targets investments within the life sciences, healthcare services, financial & business services, software & software services and industrial technology industries. The firm was founded in 1988 and is based in San Francisco (www.gencap.com).
“Genstar continues to expand and deepen its commitment to the financial services vertical. We have a reputation for executing innovative transactions across a wide spectrum of the financial services sector by partnering with high-quality management teams in businesses that exhibit attractive growth opportunities,” said Jean-Pierre Conte, Managing Director and Chairman of Genstar. “Combined with our strong relationships with industry experts, which can be invaluable for management teams as they look to expand their businesses and execute on strategic objectives, we make long-term capital investments and provide our expertise to support the strategic and financial objectives of the companies in which we invest.”
AcquiGrowth Capital (www.acquisitiongrowthcapital.com) advised Genstar and Dowling Hales (www.dowlinghales.com) advised Acrisure on the transaction.
© 2013 PEPD • Private Equity’s Leading News Magazine • 3-1-13
