’No single buyer has so far announced more than three deals in 2025,’ explains managing director
The UK insurance distribution M&A market for H1 2025 has ended “with a whimper”, according to analysis of deal values and volumes from corporate advisory firm MarshBerry.
June represented another slow month for deal activity in H1 2025, meaning that the first half of this year has been the slowest half since H1 2019 for insurance broker and MGA M&A.
MarshBerry added that, on a year-to-date basis, sector deal volumes were down 35% on the same point in 2024, with the pace of domestic consolidation having “markedly slowed”.
John Nisbet, managing director at MarshBerry, explained: ”Coupled with the prevailing soft market conditions across most classes of business, delivering the levels of topline UK growth seen in recent years in 2025 is likely to be increasingly challenging for many groups.”
However, H1 2025 saw the largest proportion of specialty MGAs or wholesalers as a total of all deals done for several years, reflecting increased interest in the MGA model. Nisbet added that the MGA segment was “expected to see continued M&A activity through 2025, involving both domestic and overseas buyers, with a number of sizeable targets currently being marketed for sale”.
New normal?
With only five broker M&A deals announced in June, Nisbet noted that sector deal activity was running well below volumes seen in 2023 and 2024.
Read: Insurance M&A continues to rise – but has it reached its peak?
Explore more M&A-related content here, or discover other news stories here
For example, only April 2025 saw the number of announced deals break double figures. Compared to an average monthly deal count of 11.1 from 2020 to 2024, this is below the trend line of recent years.
Nisbet added: ”We have become accustomed to seeing serial acquirers making large numbers of acquisitions in the UK and, in 2024, nine separate acquirers completed five or more deals, with JMG Group alone announcing 16 broker acquisitions.
“But the 49 deals done in H1 2025 have involved 37 different acquirers. No single buyer has so far announced more than three deals in 2025.
“This may be a temporary dip, but more likely it is the new normal. Creating lasting value from a domestic consolidation strategy has become more difficult. A buy-and-build strategy in UK broking has never been a slam dunk, despite what some PE firms that entered the sector may have thought.
”Several buyers are still dealing with indigestion and, as deal multiples in some of the largest sector deals have moderated, the ability to create value from multiple arbitrage –buy low, sell high – has reduced.”
No comments yet