Helios adds Lloyd's capacity in year-end M&A drive

Helios Underwriting, a market-listed consolidator of Lloyd’s capacity, rounded out the year with another three acquisitions to add another £5.68 million to the group's Lloyd's capacity.

Helios will pay £5.7 million for the three targets, including £5.1 million in cash, £0.4 million in equity and up to £0.3 million in future contingent payments. across three targets, Helios claimed an 11.7% discount to Helio's preferred valuation metric as crafted by Humphrey & Co.

Risk Capital UTG Limited dominates the group, with £4.1 million in 2022 capacity, going for a price tag of £4.6 million and the highest valuation amongst the three despite a pre-tax loss. Whitehouse Underwriting brought another £0.95 million capacity and Harris Family UTG brings £0.54 million.

The acquisition of Harris Family UTG Limited and Whitehouse Underwriting Limited have been completed and the completion of Risk Capital UTG Limited is subject to Lloyd's change of control approval.

Management had claimed a field of 17 such vehicles available for sale on the market as of mid-year and had expressed confidence it could close some deals, despite signs of rising valuations.

At that point mid-year, Helios had claimed an increase in retained capacity to £172 million for the 2022 underwriting year.

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