M&A Market Update

The Latest Deals and Insights.

Who’s buying? Who’s selling? And why should you care?

Strong Deal Activity From Active Acquirers Remains Constant

As of June 30, there have been 222 announced merger & acquisition (M&A) transactions in the U.S. in 2022.

The volume of announced transactions year–to–date decreased by 23.4% compared to the same period last year, which saw 274 deals. There has been a steep uptick in both current and retroactive announcements which has added to the deal count this year.

Private Capital backed buyers accounted for 168 of the 222 transactions (75.7%) through June. Over the last four years, deals backed by Private Capital have continued to rise as a portion of total deal announcements.

As previously mentioned, this trend is expected to remain consistent throughout the rest of 2022 as dry powder continues to be deployed. Independent firms continue to decline in the buyer market, falling to 6.7% of all announced transactions through June.

Strong deal activity from the marketplace’s most active acquirers remains constant to begin 2022.

Ten buyers account for 55.9% of all announced transactions observed, while the top three (Hub International Limited, Acrisure, LLC, and BroadStreet Partners, Inc.) account for 25.2% of the 222 total transactions.

2022 Acquisition Detail (YTD 6/30/2022)

Who’s Buying:
Insurance Broker — Independent: 15
Insurance Broker — Public: 14
Insurance Broker — Private Capital Backed: 168
Insurance Company and Other: 21
Bank and Thrift: 4

What’s Being Bought:
Full Service: 59
P&C: 119
Employee Benefits: 44

Retail vs. Specialty:
Retail: 178
Wholesale: 24
MGA: 20

Two Notable Transactions in June:

June 2:

Marsh McLennan Agency announced its acquisition of Clark Insurance. Headquartered in Portland, ME, Clark Insurance is a full–service agency providing business insurance solutions, employee benefits, and private client services to businesses and individuals across the Northeast.

June 3:

Hub International Limited announced that it acquired the assets of Alexander & Company, a Woodstock, GA, based full–service, independent employee benefits advisory firm. Alexander & Company has served public education sectors almost exclusively since 1995.

2022 Year-to-Date Most Active Buyers

Disclosure: All deal count metrics are inclusive of completed deals with U.S. targets only. Scorecard year–to–date totals may change from month to month should an acquirer notify MarshBerry or the public of a prior acquisition. 2022 statistics are preliminary and may change in future publications. Please feel free to send any announcements to M&A@MarshBerry.com. Source: S&P Global Market Intelligence, http://www. insurancejournal.com, http://www.businessinsurance.com/ and other publicly available sources