Seventeen Group has announced that it has acquired Everard Insurance Brokers Limited (‘Everards’) on the 2nd July for an undisclosed sum.
Everards are based in West Malling Kent and was established in 1969. It is a specialist marine and marine trades broker as well as handling general clients. Everards controls gross written premium of £10 million.
The vendors Stephen Roper and Tim Gilbert plus all staff will be remaining with the business which will continue to operate out of the existing West Malling premises and operate as a specialist division within Seventeen Group’s broking subsidiary James Hallam Limited.
Stephen Roper, MD of Everards comments “We thought long and hard about the type of broker we would want our staff and clients to join and James Hallam within Seventeen Group felt like the right choice from the outset”. Fellow Everards Director Tim Gilbert adds “Having developed the business and its reputation over many years we are keen to see these foundations built upon. We can add enormously to James Hallam in terms of our specialist knowledge and will likewise gain from being part of a specialist dynamic Group”.
Seventeen Group is a privately-owned insurance Group which includes James Hallam insurance brokers, Touchstone Underwriting and 4Sight Risk Management.
Paul Anscombe, Chief Executive Officer of Seventeen Group comments “The acquisition of Everards is consistent with our strategy of growing and creating specialist lines of business. The team in West Malling are hugely knowledgeable in their field and are ambitious to grow the business. Everards have excellent relationships with their key insurers which we are keen to maintain and to expand the product range”.
Anscombe further adds “We were supported in this transaction by Paul Hambrook and the Clydesdale Bank insurance team and we will seek to work with Clydesdale on future opportunities going forwards. We are also grateful to Gary Medcraff of Darwin Smith for introducing Everards to us. Successful acquisitions require experienced business partners and there is no doubt that both Clydesdale bank and Darwin Smith were instrumental in helping both parties achieve our desired outcomes”.