Ardonagh Set to Raise Up to $2.5 Billion to Fuel Expansion Spree
Ardonagh Group Ltd. is nearing a deal to raise as much as $2.5 billion from investors to help fuel the private equity-backed insurance broker’s rapid growth.
The London-based firm is expected to close the capital-raise this summer in an oversubscribed process, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The proceeds will be used to fund growth opportunities including potential acquisitions, the people added, asking not to be identified as the fundraising is not public.
The funding round comes after PE firm Stone Point Capital agreed to invest in the business in December in a transaction that valued the company at about $14 billion.
A representative for Ardonagh, which is majority-owned by Madison Dearborn Partners, declined to comment.
Ardonagh’s rapid ascent represents a dramatic change in fortunes for a business that rose from the ashes of Towergate, an insurance broker rescued by creditor HPS Investment Partners after a debt fueled M&A splurge. In 2017, Towergate merged with three other insurance brokers and services businesses to form Ardonagh.
With the help of backers Madison Dearborn Partners, and later the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, it has become one of the industry’s biggest players under Chief Executive Officer David Ross.
Ardonagh has already bought a string of assets in markets including Brazil, Spain and Italy. Last year, it purchased Australia’s PSC Insurance Group for an implied equity value of A$2.3 billion ($1.5 billion), taking it private and combining it with its Envest business.
Photograph: The City of London. Photo credit: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg
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