AnaCap’s Brightside takeover goes through

Private equity house AnaCap’s takeover of Brightside has taken effect.

The scheme of arrangement AnaCap is using to buy the broker cleared its last hurdle today when the High Court approved the capital reduction taking place as part of the deal.

The court approved the scheme itself on Tuesday.

Brightside’s shareholders will get 25 pence a share and will receive their money no later than 7 August.

Brightside will delist from the London Stock Exchange’s Alternative Investment Market at 7am tomorrow.

The completion of the acquisition closely follows the news that departing Arthur J Gallagher duo Des O’Connor and Andrew Wallin will join AnaCap.

Brightside is AnaCap’s third deal in the insurance sector in just over a year. It backed UK broking group Simply Business’s management buy-out in July 2013 and invested in French personal lines broker AssurOne Group in June.

AnaCap investment director Jatender Aujla said: “Brightside has grown rapidly over the last few years to become a scaled and relevant player in both the UK personal and commercial lines insurance broking market. We are excited to work with the business during its next phase of development and growth.”

Brightside chief executive Paul Williams added: “We look forward to building upon Brightside’s successes to-date and drawing upon AnaCap’s considerable expertise to grow the business into one of the leading niche personal and commercial lines insurance brokers in the UK market.”