MacDonagh Boland group acquires three broking firms

THE MacDonagh Boland group has acquired three insurance broking businesses, boosting the size of its business by around 50 per cent. It now has annual fee and commission earnings of around £17 million.

MacDonagh Boland is already the largest general insurance broker in the Republic and the latest acquisitions strengthen its position on both sides of the Border.

It has purchased three brokers, Alexander & Alexander and JH Minnett, which operate in both the Republic and the North, and Bain Hogg, which is based in the North.

The acquisitions result from a purchase by MacDonagh Boland's US parent, the Aon Group, of the international companies which owned the three Irish brokers.

The consideration for the acquisitions has not been disclosed. The three had total annual commission and fee earnings of around £5.5 million. On the basis of the price Aon paid for the international businesses, the cost to MacDonagh Boland of the three acquisitions was thus probably somewhere around £5 million to £6 million.

Total employment in the new company, which has been renamed Aon MacDonagh Boland, will rise from 200 to 300 people. No immediate job losses are anticipated.

As well as increasing the size of the company's insurance broking business, the acquisition of Alexander & Alexander also boosts MacDonagh Boland's operations in the IFSC, according to chairman and chief executive, Mr Ted MacRedmond.

The group already operated in the centre through MacDonagh Boland International. Alexander & Alexander has a major operation there, which is involved in the captive insurance business, managing exposures on behalf of large international companies. Together the two operations will be one of the biggest insurance concerns in the centre, according to Mr MacRedmond.

Aon, which is based in Chicago, acquired the stake in MacDonagh Boland around two and a half years ago, when it purchased another US broker, Frank B Hall. AON holds 75 per cent of MacDonagh Boland, Smurfit owns 20 per cent and the remaining 5 per cent is owned by Mr Ted MacRedmond.

Aon in the US announced it was merging with Alexander & Alexander late last year, shortly after Alexander & Alexander in Ireland had acquired brokers Clinton Curtis and Melling.

Aon is the second biggest international insurance broking group, after Marsh McLelland, another USbased concern, which is also represented in the Irish market.