After completing a host of acquisitions last year, the broker has its sights set on further international growth and plans for ‘new territories to add to the group’
Insurance distribution consolidation business PIB Group has recorded an adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) of £37.7m for the year ending 31 December 2020, demonstrating a 41% improvement on its 2019 figure.
These numbers form part of the broking company’s 2020 year-end financial results, published today (6 September 2021).
Over the course of 2020, PIB Group also increased its revenue by 23% compared to 2019, to report a final figure of £151.5m.
Gross written premiums (GWP) amounted to £1,524.2m for the 12 months to December 2020, while adjusted EBITDA on a run-rate basis, which includes the pro forma effect of acquisitions completed during 2019 but excludes all expected synergies, was £52.1m for the same reporting period.
PIB Group chief financial officer Ryan Brown said: “At a time of significant domestic and international uncertainty, I remain confident that the strength of our infrastructure and platforms, along with the exceptional expertise and commitment of our people, the strength of relationships with insurer partners and incredible support from our capital providers, will ensure that we are able to support our clients, adapt to changing market dynamics and remain capable of driving significant growth both this year and into the future.”
Building a diverse portfolio
PIB Group attributed its solid financial performance in 2020 to its core strategy of embracing “a diversified business portfolio”, which it believes “is the most effective way of mitigating the risk of general declines in economic conditions”.
“The importance of this strategy was seen through the Covid-19 pandemic with the group showing high levels of resilience and performing well from both a financial and operational perspective, while also making the health and wellbeing of our people a priority,” the business added.
Key to this approach is PIB Group’s mergers and acquisitions (M&A) programme, which centres around buying “businesses that operate in niche segments, are ‘famous for something’ and demonstrate attractive organic growth dynamics and additional product specialism”.
In 2020, the broker bought:
- The employee benefit books of Sanlam Wealth Planning UK and Avidus Scott Lang.
- BK Insurance Brokers.
- RA Insurance Brokers.
- Marx Re GmbH.
- Rigton Insurance Services.
- Arlington Insurance Services.
- Erskine Murray.
- WDB SA.
- Barbon Insurance Group.
The broker’s international expansion is also continuing – it confirmed it has a “presence in Ireland, Germany, Denmark, Poland and Spain, with other countries in the pipeline”.
Brown continued: “The spread of Covid-19 led to 2020 being an incredibly challenging year given its impact on our people, our operations and our clients. However, in true PIB style, we stepped up and I am immensely proud of the way our people came together to respond, which saw us maintain our exceptional levels of service while continuing the group’s evolution and strong growth.
“With the unwavering support of our capital providers, we were able to continue investing significantly in the business through acquisitions, IT and infrastructure development, and continue to hire market leading teams and individuals. All of this will help us sustain our market beating organic growth into 2021 and beyond.
“Completing a number of international acquisitions was also particularly pleasing and incredibly important in the context of meeting our long-term strategic goals.
“These acquisitions have established us as a credible acquirer of non-UK businesses and we are now actively engaged on a number of follow-up acquisitions in each of these countries as well as having some new territories to add to the group.”
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