Private Equity Firm Odyssey Buys Broker Integro

New York and Los Angeles private equity firm Odyssey Investment Partners, LLC has agreed to acquire Integro Ltd., a specialty insurance brokerage and risk management firm. Financial details of the investment were not disclosed.

Integro was founded in New York in 2005 and now has 40 offices in the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom and Bermuda handling $1.86 billion in premium annually.

In recent years, Integro has been actively building its specialty areas including healthcare; entertainment; professional services; aviation; energy; trade and logistics; reinsurance; and benefits consulting. Its affiliated companies include Lemme Insurance Brokers (acquired last month), International Energy Insurance Brokers (acquired in June), London’s Kite Warren & Wilson Ltd (acquired in May), Energy Insurance Brokers (acquired in May), NPA Insurance Broking Group (acquired in March), Design Insurance Agency (acquired in March),and others.

Integro is the eighth largest private broker in the United States in terms of property/casualty written premium, according to Insurance Journal.

The Integro management team including William Goldstein, president; John Sutton, president, International operations; Toby Humphreys, chairman, Integro Insurance Brokers; and Marc Kunney, president, North American operations, will remain in place and certain members of its management team and other employees will remain shareholders in the company, according to the announcement.

“Odyssey’s resources and industry expertise will help accelerate the growth trajectory of our core business and specialty acquisitions,” Goldstein said.

Jeffrey McKibben, a managing principal of Odyssey Investment Partners, called Integro an “extraordinary success story.”

In June, Integro hired Ben Rubin, an insurance acquisitions specialist from Lake Forest Bank & Trust, to head its mergers and acquisitions efforts.

One of the founders of Integro was the late Robert Clements, a global insurance executive who was also helped found Arch Capital Group and Ironshore Inc. and was instrumental in the launching of global insurers ACE Ltd. and XL Capital Ltd.

Odyssey also has investments in other insurance-related businesses including Montpelier Re, York Insurance Services and OneCall Medical.

Completion of the transaction is expected in the fourth quarter of 2015.