Private medical insurance (PMI) adviser-consolidator Chase Templeton has completed the first in a new series of acquisitions with the purchase of Health Assist Ltd.
In January Chase Templeton revealed it was planning a fresh round of ‘significant' acquisitions of broker operations and PMI books for the rest of 2014.
Health Assist specialises in company PMI, employee benefits and group risk Health Assist was founded in 2005 by managing director Simon Allen.
Allen sold the business to focus on other business interests and agreed a deal which will add £1.9m in annual premium income (API) to Chase Templeton's Business division.
The Health Assist business will be integrated with Chase Templeton's Business operation at its Blackburn headquarters.
Warren Dickson, chief executive of Chase Templeton said: "Health Assist has a relatively small but well established and profitable SME client base to which we feel, with our greater resources and expertise, we can offer greater value. In the current economic and regulatory climate it's really tough for smaller brokers to compete effectively."
The acquisition is the first in a series Chase Templeton has pipelined for this and next month.
Backed by funding from Palatine Private Equity, the company has been actively seeking potential takeover targets, ranging from fully fledged brokers to the books of consultants and IFAs.
In 2013 it sealed 12 deals which took turnover to over £12m and saw its business and individual client base grow to over 35,000.
Dickson added: "We are close to signing off several other acquisitions of varying size and remain hungry for more."
