Business Weekly - Cambridge, UK

The Brentwood firm has acquired MRB Insurance Brokers Limited (MRB), a Romford-based personal lines intermediary that trades as 1st Quote.

The deal will add a further 60,000 policies to Highway Retail bringing the total number of policies handled to over 170,000 and will position Highway Retail within the top 12 general insurance intermediaries in the UK.

MRB operates from a call centre near Highway’s headquarters in Brentwood and generates personal lines business from both on-page advertising and the internet.

For the year ended December 31, MRB handled gross written premiums in excess of £24.6m, generated brokerage income of £6.6m and reported a pre-tax profit of £1m.

The initial amount of consideration payable by High-way in cash for the share capital of MRB is £6.6m.

Further consideration amounting to £6.5m is payable to MRB shareholders in respect of the tangible net assets of the business.

Deferred consideration may also be payable to the shareholders of MRB in the event that certain performance targets are met.

Paul Cosh, managing director of Highway Retail, said: "By acquiring MRB we have instantly promoted Highway Retail into the top 12 UK general insurance intermediaries, but we have a lot more growth planned for the future.

"Highway Retail is not, however, resting on its laurels; instead our team is working hard on developing integrated product offerings and continuing to expand our client base organically."