Eurazeo, through its Mid-large buyout team and its affiliates, will invest up to £355 million in BMS Group and acquire up to 34% of its share capital. Eurazeo and its affiliates will join BMS alongside its existing shareholders British Columbia Investment Management Corporation (BCI), Preservation Capital Partners (PCP) and BMS’ management and employees. Eurazeo and BCI together will be majority shareholders of the Company for its next phase of growth. Completion of the transaction is subject to obtaining relevant regulatory approvals.
Established in 1980, BMS is a leading independent (re)insurance broker delivering comprehensive, customised solutions in the field of wholesale, reinsurance and retail insurance as well as capital markets advisory services. Headquartered in London, BMS benefits from a strong reputation for placement of large and complex risks and operates across 14 countries with 28 offices around the world (US, Canada, Latin America, Australia, Europe and Asia).
BMS represents Eurazeo’s latest investment in financial services, one of its four key sector of focus. Eurazeo, BCI and PCP will support, Nick Cook, CEO of BMS, and the rest of the BMS senior management team to pursue its proven growth strategy. In the period 2019 to 2022, revenues at BMS have increased from c.£100m to more than £250m, while staff numbers have risen by nearly 75% to c.900 people globally. The investment from Eurazeo and other shareholders is expected to enable BMS to further expand as a global independent specialty (re)insurance broker by growing its foothold internationally both organically and through an active M&A strategy.
White & Case partner Will Summers, who co-led the firm’s deal team, said: “White & Case’s involvement in this landmark transaction demonstrates our deep expertise advising financial sponsors investing in the financial services sector.”
Eurazeo is one of Europe’s leading private equity companies. Listed on Euronext Paris and with offices across Europe, North America, South America and Asia, it currently has more than €32 billion in assets under management.
The White & Case team which advised on the transaction was led by partners Will Summers and Ken Barry (both London) and included partners Denise Diallo, Orion Berg, Estelle Philippi (all Paris), Jonathan Rogers, Kristen DiLemmo, Will Smith, Nicholas Greenacre, Lindsey Canning, Tim Hickman (all London), Sara Nordin (Brussels), Richard Burke, Farhad Jalinous (both Washington, DC) and Scott Fryman (New York), counsel Julio Peralta (Madrid), Ryan Brady (Washington, DC) and Sidney Tang (Sydney), and associates Irina Fogarty, Trishala Naidu, Johanna Wagner, Harriet Baldwin, Alec Buchanan, Shehnai Arora, Sarah Lee, Amy Detheridge, Aishwarya Jha (all London), Laure Bauduret, Phillippine Chinaud, Chloé Bouffard (all Paris) and Matthias Vangenechten (New York).
