DLA Piper advises on PIB Group deal

DLA Piper has advised PIB Group, the independent insurance intermediary group backed by Apax Partners on its acquisition of the Acquinex insurance group. Acquinex is a specialist Managing General Agency (MGA) with operations in the UK, Germany, Denmark and Poland who focus on providing bespoke M&A insurance products across Europe.

The DLA Piper team was led by Caroline Kearns (Corporate Legal Director, Dublin), with PIB relationship partner Matt Cole (Corporate Partner, Dublin) and Jack Kelly, Dara McDonald and Blayre McBride (Corporate Associates, Dublin) and involved a large multi-jurisdictional team including John Svenson (Corporate Partner, Denmark), Mathias Sheinen Schulze (Corporate Partner, Germany), Marta Frackowiak (Corporate Partner, Poland), Martin McLeod (Incentives Legal Director, London), Magdi Adab (Corporate Senior Associate, London), Matt Davies (Tax Senior Associate, London), Karen Hird (Tax Associate, London), Kristin Vogt-Schories (Corporate Senior Associate, Germany), and Izabela Gebal (Corporate Senior Associate, Poland).

Dublin Legal Director Caroline Kearns commented "It was a pleasure to leverage our extensive cross-border M&A and insurance expertise in delivering this significant transaction for PIB as they continue their impressive growth trajectory and further strengthen their position in the European market".

Dublin Corporate Partner Matt Cole said "We are delighted to have advised PIB on this strategically important deal as they acquire their first European financial lines MGA and make a first move into the Nordics. The transaction shows DLA Piper’s ability to provide clients with first rate insurance M&A advice across multiple jurisdictions. We were particularly pleased to lead such a complex transaction from Ireland, demonstrating the seamless nature of DLA Piper’s offering and the terrific quality of our rapidly expanding Dublin office".

With more than 1,000 corporate lawyers globally, DLA Piper helps clients execute complex cross-border transactions seamlessly while supporting clients across all stages of development. The firm has been rated number one in global M&A volume for eleven consecutive years, according to Mergermarket..

DLA Piper’s Insurance sector group offers a full range of insurance services, including transactional, regulatory, commercial dispute resolution, claims, competition, restructuring and emergency response. The firm represents both startups and established multinational life and non-life (re)insurers, Lloyd’s entities, intermediaries, banks, capital providers (including hedge funds, private equity funds and venture capital funds), regulators and other insurance industry participants.