Ardonagh reveals five-fold growth in five years
European, international and specialty footprint building fast
Fast-growing UK-based broking firm Ardonagh Group announced further impressive growth in income and profit last year, on the back of another set of acquisitions that added 39 companies to the fold. It also revealed that it has another 70 deals in the pipeline.
Ardonagh is expanding rapidly in Europe, notably acquiring Portugal-based MDS in December and Netherlands-based Léons Group in October. It also bought leading Australian broker Envest.
The acquisitions, organic growth and continued hard market conditions helped Ardonagh deliver an impressive 2022 result. Full year pro forma income was up to $1.8bn from $1.4bn in 2021. Adjusted EBITDA was $594m, up from $512m in 2021. This included completed and committed acquisitions, together with annualised growth and savings initiatives, said the group.
Group reported income was up 30% to $1.5bn last year from $1.2bn in 2021, and adjusted EBITDA up 22% to $476m from $390m the year before.
The group said that its strategy was driven by a continued focus on diversifying across products and markets, combining the strength of its established UK platforms with momentum in specialty and international business, which now account for over 45% of group income. Organic income growth was 16% in specialty last year and 19% in international.
The group said that it has raised more than $1bn of combined equity and debt from its existing investors since the beginning of 2022 to support its acquisition plan.
Ardonagh said that the M&A pipeline remains active with over 70 transactions on the cards with a value of more than $100m in EBIDTA.
The Ardonagh Group welcomed 1,189 new colleagues, excluding those from mergers and acquisitions, during 2022.
Group chief executive David Ross commented: “Ardonagh was created to build a high-quality global platform comprising client focused, specialist broking businesses, with a London specialty business at its heart. Our development from a regional UK-centric business in 2017 to one that isn’t reliant on any single economy has provided us with substantial opportunities for growth, as well as resilience against macroeconomic headwinds.”
“Our regional UK platform was the bedrock for the development of Ardonagh into the diversified and vibrant marketplace that it is today,” he added.
