Cullum could rake in up to £800m for the sale of GRP

Insurance veteran Peter Cullum is in talks to sell Lloyd’s of London broker Global Risk Partners (GRP), according to media outlet Mail Online.

A number of US private equity firms, such as Wall Street company Apollo and hedge fund business Centrebridge, which specialises in distressed debt, have showed their cards as interested parties for the purchase of GRP – the organisations hired banking firm Evercore last year to complete a strategic review of GRP.

Apax and CVC Capital are also said to be toying with GRP’s purchase possibility.

The Mail Online reported that GRP’s sale could amount to between £700m and £800m – Cullum would receive a multi-million-pound payout from this as he is the business’s largest shareholder.

In its 2019 annual report and financial statement, published on 8 January 2020, GRP reported a £27.8m operating profit as of 31 March 2019 – this equates to a 173% increase from 2018 figures. The total loss, after taxation, for the year amounts to just under £18m.

Furthermore, creditor amounts that are due within one year total a loss of around £63.8m, while debtors due within one year equal £30.8m.

Cullum is a mainstay of the insurance sector; he set up broker Towergate in 1997.

GRP declined to comment when asked by Insurance Times.