Acquisitive virtual insurer Folgate has strengthened its northern arm by buying Hull-based broker Devonshire Wilson.

Devonshire Wilson controls premiums worth about £9m a year.

It will become the Folgate Partnership's hub for the region, providing a base for future acquisitions.

It will continue to be headed by bosses Rob Wilson, Patrick Hastie and Rob Smith and will retain its staff of 37.

It will be the sixth business in the Folgate Partnership's northern region, joining SMG, RBR, Hainsworth Watts, Willett & Ross and Cowburn.

Folgate Partnership executive chairman Peter Cullum said: "The Folgate Partnership is in advanced stages of negotiation with a number of other brokers and the acquisition of Devonshire Wilson keeps us well on track to achieve our objective of becoming the UK's largest independent intermediary within three years of our launch."

  • Folgate subsidiary network Folgate Masterplan will hold an inaugural national conference on 12 June at the East Midlands Conference Centre in Nottingham.

    Speakers will include: Tim Howarth, manager of authorisation strategy for the FSA, and Folgate chief executive and CII president Andy Homer.

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