Mazars and Pannone Corporate advise Verlingue on major UK acquisition

The move triples Verlingue’s size in the UK market and takes the wider group – and its UK subsidiary Finch – alongside the main independent insurance brokers in the UK with premiums of £130m and 170 employees across five locations. Surrey-based ICB is a multi-specialist independent corporate broker. ICB Group and Finch will work collaboratively to further their strengths and to identify best practices to build a common entity for the benefit of clients, staff and profitable growth.

Simon Fitzsimmons, director at Mazars, provided corporate finance advice to Verlingue. He was assisted by Zoe Nateras. Neil Robinson and Hayley Brightmore, also of Mazars, carried out financial due diligence.

Simon commented: “This is a fantastic occasion for both companies. It was a pleasure to work with the teams from both sides and this is a great opportunity to further enhance the collective presence in the UK broking market."

Mike Latham, managing director of Finch, said: “We are delighted to welcome ICB Group to the Verlingue family. We see the skills, location and breadth of services that ICB offer to be hugely complimentary to that of Finch. The greater scale which the ICB team will bring will enable us to collectively forge a company that will be a leading player in the UK independent broker market.”

The Pannone Corporate team was led by Tom Hall, and also included Andrew Walsh and Miranda Foy. 

Tom Hall, partner at Pannone Corporate, said: “We are delighted to have advised Verlingue on its latest UK acquisition. ICB and Finch have excellent synergies and under the Verlingue group will be a major force in the UK insurance broker market.”

Catherine Drew and Pei Li Kew of law firm Charles Russell Speechlys advised the shareholders of ICB Group.

ENDS