Top 50 Brokers 2016: #8 Towergate

Chief executive: David Ross

Brokerage: £352.2m

Management

The full management team is now in place under former Gallagher International head David Ross, who has been Towergate’s chief executive since November 2015. The big names at the top table include Adrian Brown as chief executive of Towergate Underwriting, Janice Deakin as broking boss and Mark Mugge as chief financial officer.

Strategy

After an eventful 2015 of legal battles and a financial restructuring to prevent the broker collapsing, Towergate is trying to settle down now to focus on integration and growth.

But the broker has had the rug pulled from under its feet again after being hit with a £2.6m fine from the FCA for historical client and insurer money failures.

Towergate faces the challenge of integrating, not just its people, but its systems as well. The broker has been grappling with the challenge of running between 60 and 80 different versions of OpenGI and 600 servers.

It has signed a five-year deal with Accenture to handle the IT side.

Towergate may not currently be making any acquisitions but the broker is thought to be part of a much bigger plan by majority-owner HPS, formerly Highbridge Principal Strategies.

Towergate recently sold a majority stake in Broker Network to HPS and since then there has been strong speculation that Broker Network is planning to acquire broking firms. HPS is also close to agreeing a deal to acquire van broker Autonet.