(Bloomberg) -- A group led by the private equity firm GTCR LLC is nearing a deal to buy a majority stake in AssuredPartners Inc. that would the insurance brokerage at about $5.1 billion, including debt, according to people familiar with the matter.
A deal could be announced as soon as this week, the people said, who asked not to be identified because the matter is private. An agreement hasn’t been reached and it’s possible the deal could fall apart, they said.
Private equity firms are drawn to insurance brokerages because they have strong cash flow and tend to perform well through economic cycles. Also, brokerages operate in a fragmented industry, allowing for consolidation. KKR & Co. agreed this month to buy a stake in Swedish insurance broker Soderberg & Partners.
The AssuredPartners stake is being sold by Apax Partners, which replaced Chicago-based GTCR as the company’s main institutional investor in 2015. Representatives for GTCR and Apax declined to comment. A representative for AssuredPartners didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Founded in 2011, AssuredPartners, based in Lake Mary, Florida, acquires and invests in property and casualty, employee benefits, surety and other insurance brokerage businesses across the U.S. and in London. The firm’s annualized revenue is more than $1.1 billion, according to its website.
GTCR was co-founded by Bruce Rauner, who served as Illinois governor from 2015 to 2019. Since its founding in 1980, the firm has has invested more than $15 billion in more than 200 companies and taken more than 40 of them public, according to its website. It announced last week that it had completed its acquisitions of Ultimus Fund Solutions and The Gemini Cos., which it’s combining to form an administration and accounting service for fund managers.
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