Acquisition bolsters underwriting agency’s presence in Europe

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Underwriting agency Nexus Underwriting Management has bought specialist MGA EBA Insurance Services for an undisclosed sum.

EBA, founded in 1999, produces €30m (£21m) of gross written premium a year. Its business lines include surety, architects and engineers professional indemnity and general professional indemnity.

As part of the transaction EBA’s Simon Barker, responsible for marketing and broker relations, will become EBA’s managing director. Current EBA chief executive Tony McCallum will become a non-executive director.

Christina Spelman will remain EBA;s chief underwriting officer.

Nexus chief executive Colin Thompson said: “We identified some time ago that EBA were an excellent partner to be brought into the group to grow our MGA business as they have built up a high profile in Europe, especially France and Italy, and have an excellent product range that dovetails in well with ours, all of which will open up new channels of business for Nexus.”

“In conjunction with this, the recent increased investment by B.P. Marsh & Partners Plc is extremely welcome and their proactive support is enabling us to continue our planned expansion strategy whereby Nexus maps out growth and extended underwriting reach through potential MGA acquisitions.”

Barker added: “EBA has sought a dedicated MGA partner who underwrites and manages programmes in the multiple jurisdictions we cover.

“Allied with our multilingual team renowned for quality of service, responsiveness and technical expertise, we are confident that we will fit in well with the Nexus way of doing business and are delighted that this deal has come to fruition.”