Carpenter-Turner deal to be template

Gerry Tighe, head of treaty at broker Matrix, believes the recent deal that sees Guy Carpenter take a significant stake in the new venture called Carpenter Turner, which it will use develop business in Greece, Cyprus and adjacent countries, could become a template of things to come in the industry.

The venture has been formed with Alex Turner, a former broker at Aon Benfield. From 9 September, Carpenter Turner will take over all renewing business from Guy Carpenter’s office in Athens.

Tighe believes such deals could become commonplace with the bigger players partnering with individuals or taking stakes in smaller firms.

“This is a tiny move in the scheme of things, but I’ve never seen it happen before,” said Tighe. “Where have you seen one of the big brokers come in and offer a partner a shareholding and then agree to take a minority stake?

“Personally, if I were sitting in Aon’s Stockholm offices I would want to do what Turner has done. This could open the floodgates. You could start seeing Willis Smith, Aon Jones – a whole number of combinations. This could really change the way the industry functions.”

Carpenter Turner’s entrance into the Greek market is not a concern for Matrix, according to Tighe. He maintains that more consolidation doesn’t mean the death of independent brokers like Matrix.

“The split between Aon and Turner means that our only competitor has split in two,” he said. “There are now three brokers fighting over the business rather than two. It fell very well for us, because when they left the market with their one-year non-compete agreement we managed to take a load of the business during that year and became the number one broker in the Greek market.”

Part of Matrix’s success, according to Tighe, has been the fact that the company has always invested heavily in analytics, something not all small brokers do.

“Analytics are incredibly important,” he said. “We handle them the same way as the big brokers – we’ve invested heavily. In some ways the global brokers are going to such lengths that they’re at times offering far more services than clients really want, but you have to be able to offer those analytical services. That’s where a lot of the smaller brokers fall down: they don’t invest in that side of things.”

Tighe concluded: “If you want to compete with global brokers you need to have the same capabilities. But in the end what clients want is dedication, professionalism and attention to detail. When you have a smaller company whose owners are directly involved in the day-to-day operations you know that we’re always going to go that extra mile. We go a little bit further.”