Arachas hires former Bank of Ireland executive as finance chief

Arachas, one of most acquisitive insurance brokers in the State in the past five years, has hired former Bank of Ireland executive Martin Mohan to become its chief financial officer.

Mr Mohan had been with Bank of Ireland for close to eight years, most recently serving as director of group strategy and development. He also previously worked in AIB’s corporate finance unit.

He succeeds John McCarthy, who had served as CFO at Arachas since 2018, during a period of significant merger and acquisitions activity at the company as the wider sector underwent a wave of consolidation. Mr McCarthy is now taking on an international role at Arachas’s parent company, UK-based Ardonagh Group.

“As we look to the next phase of growth we will utilise Martin’s experience to target the broader corporate insurance market whilst consolidating the traditional SME and consumer sectors and growing our employment figures that have risen from 250 to 700 over the last five years,” said Conor Brennan, chief executive of Arachas and Ardonagh’s Europe unit.

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Arachas, which has 18 offices around the Republic and is chaired by former minister for finance Charlie McCreevy, saw its net profit jump by 35 per cent last year to €30.9 million as deal-making across the industry continued at pace. Its growth last year was supported by integration of recent acquisitions such as Waterford-based Hooper Dolan Insurances, Dublin-based Stuart Insurances and Apex Insurance in Cork.

Growth in the current year has been underpinned by the acquisitions of Glennon Insurances in Dublin and Limerick-based O’Malley-Griffin to Arachas Corporate Brokers.

The wider Irish market has seen a flurry of broker deals in the past six years as it followed waves of consolidation in the UK and North America. The ultimate backers of most of the purchasing vehicles are private equity firms, attracted to a sector that is fee-based and delivers steady revenues through the economic cycle. This allows buyers to service the debt needed to finance further deals.

Arachas itself was acquired in 2020 by Ardonagh, which is backed by US private equity firms Madison Dearborn and HPS Partners, for €250 million.