IBI Corporate Finance takes 50% stake in M&A advisor

IBI Corporate Finance has acquired a 50 per cent stake in a specialist Dublin-based mergers and acquisitions (M&A) advisor Broker Exchange Ireland (BXI).

This is the first transaction that IBI has made since it completed a management buyout from Bank of Ireland in 2017.

Founded in 2019, BXI advises on transactions between brokers working in the insurance and wealth management sectors.

Tom Godfrey, chairman and chief executive of IBI Corporate Finance, said that the traditional world of insurance and wealth management brokers was undergoing a period of rapid consolidation and change.

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“There have been some very high-profile, landmark transactions at the top end of the financial services market and particularly the wealth management and insurance sectors in the past few years but brokers at the smaller end of the market are going through a similar process,” he said.

“ Regulatory and compliance costs are increasing significantly, many smaller brokers with owner-managers are looking to exit the market and you have a new generation of Irish and international players looking to bring various parties together to increase market share and leverage greater economies of scale,” he said.

“ We believe there will be a significant volume of transactions in this sector over the rest of the decade and we’re delighted to back BXI which has vast experience and connections across the broker market,” he said.