News

Caledonia, Michigan-based Acrisure LLC, a national and global insurance brokerage, has secured $2 billion in funding. The investors are Blackstone, Partners Group and Harvest Partners SCF. The investment implies a valuation for Acrisure at more than $7 billion. Evercore was financial adviser to Acrisure on the transaction.

PRESS RELEASE

GRAND RAPIDS, MI, December 10, 2018 – Acrisure, LLC, a leading national and global insurance brokerage, today announced that a group of investors led by funds managed by Blackstone’s GSO Capital Partners and Tactical Opportunities businesses (“Blackstone”), have significantly increased their investment in the company. Partners Group (on behalf of its clients) also increased their investment, and along with Harvest Partners SCF, who is also investing to support this transaction, the three investors now have invested or committed to $2 billion of preferred equity in the company. The investment implies a valuation for Acrisure of more than $7 billion and, pro forma for this transaction, Acrisure remains over 83% owned by its management team and agency partners.

Acrisure has grown from $650 million in revenue to approximately $1.5 billion in revenue over the past two years. The company completed 92 acquisitions in 2017 and expects to complete over 100 by year-end 2018. In 2016, Acrisure completed a $2.9 billion management-led buyout (MBO) in a transaction led by Greg Williams, Acrisure’s President and Chief Executive Officer and co-founder, and a consortium of minority investors. Blackstone and Partners Group were part of the initial group of investors supporting the MBO.

Mr. Williams, said, “The increased investment by our existing investors is a strong endorsement of our growth strategy and represents another exciting chapter for Acrisure. The additional capital and resources will significantly benefit our company as we continue to grow organically and pursue additional M&A opportunities. Over the past two years, we have grown enterprise value from $2.9 billion at the time of the MBO in 2016 to over $7 billion today. Further, we have strengthened our position as a leading global provider of insurance solutions and continued to build a pipeline of culturally compatible agency prospects that we look forward to welcoming into the Acrisure family. Importantly, the company continues to be primarily employee owned, with over 83% ownership in the hands of employees.”

Louis Salvatore, Senior Managing Director at GSO Capital Partners, said, “Since we initially invested in Acrisure in 2016, we have been very pleased with the company’s progress and have chosen to significantly increase our level of investment. Acrisure has grown at an accelerated rate as a result of the efforts of Greg and his management team and agency partners who control the company. Based on this progress, we are very optimistic about the company’s continued future performance and we remain strongly supportive of the team as it accelerates Acrisure’s growth trajectory.”

Christopher Hardison, Managing Director, Private Debt Americas at Partners Group, commented, “It has been a privilege to support Greg and Acrisure in this phenomenal growth story over the last several years, and we look forward to continuing that support with this next round of preferred equity. Acrisure is a market leader in its space, with a recurring revenue model, diversified revenue mix, strong free cash flow and a demonstrated ability to successfully consolidate the market – all of which helped lead to our decision to increase our investment level in the company on behalf of our clients.”

Steve Duke, Partner and Co-Head at Harvest Partners SCF, said, “Acrisure has a proven track record of growing both organically and through acquisitions across a variety of geographies, product lines and end markets and is led by a best-in-class management team. We are very excited to partner with Greg and the Acrisure team in this proprietary transaction as the Company enters its next stage of growth.”

Evercore acted as exclusive financial adviser to Acrisure for this transaction.

About Blackstone
Blackstone is one of the world’s leading investment firms with over $457 billion in assets under management, including investment vehicles focused on private equity, real estate, public debt, and equity, non-investment grade credit, real assets and secondary funds, all on a global basis. Blackstone seeks to create positive economic impact and long-term value for its investors, the companies they invest in, and the communities in which they work. We do this by using extraordinary people and flexible capital to help companies solve problems. Further information is available at www.blackstone.com. Follow Blackstone on Twitter @Blackstone.

About Partners Group
Partners Group (www.partnersgroup.com) is a global private markets investment management firm with EUR 67 billion (USD $78 billion) in investment programs under management in private equity, private real estate, private infrastructure and private debt. The firm manages a broad range of customized portfolios for an international clientele of institutional investors. Partners Group is headquartered in Zug, Switzerland and has offices in Denver, Houston, New York, São Paulo, London, Guernsey, Paris, Luxembourg, Milan, Munich, Dubai, Mumbai, Singapore, Manila, Shanghai, Seoul, Tokyo and Sydney. The firm employs over 1,000 people and is listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange (symbol: PGHN) with a major ownership by its partners and employees.

About Harvest Partners SCF, LP
Harvest Partners SCF, LP (“Harvest SCF”) is the non-control private equity strategy of Harvest Partners, LP, an investment firm with $6 billion of assets under management. Harvest SCF was founded in 2014 and is led by an experienced team of private equity investment professionals. Harvest SCF provides flexible and customized non-control equity solutions to business owners and private equity firms that need capital for growth, liquidity, new platform investments or transformative acquisitions. Visit www.hp-scf.com for more information.

About Acrisure
Based in Caledonia, MI, Acrisure is a leading retail consulting and insurance brokerage offering comprehensive property & casualty, employee benefits, human resource outsourcing, loss & claims management, surety bonding and personal lines solutions. The firm has over 400 Agency Partners with locations in 32 states, seven international locations, and approximately 5,600 employees. For more information, please visit www.Acrisure.com.