Blanc aims to double Aston Lark business for Howden

Peter Blanc, group CEO of Aston Lark, has lifted the lid on the sale of the business to Howden.

The move, announced yesterday (13 October), sees Aston Lark become part of Howden and join forces with personal lines specialist A-Plan.

The deal creates a £6bn GWP giant.

“It will make us an incredible force to be reckoned with and we think it makes us the second biggest broker in the UK after Marsh,” Blanc noted.

Spectrum
Describing the combined Aston Lark, A-Plan and Howden businesses as a “powerhouse” he highlighted the natural fit of the three organisations.

He explained: “In the UK Howden has A-Plan doing volume personal lines at one end of the spectrum and then at the other end they have the big Howden global corporate specialty business which is able to look after great big FTSE-100 companies and global international corporate players. Aston Lark is basically everything in between that.

“We’re the meat in the sandwich but it means, as a business going forward, we are going to be able to look after everyone from a private individual all the way up to a major global corporate and everything in between.”

M&A
Once the deal receives regulatory approval Blanc’s key aim will be to double the size of the business, some of which will be achieved through further acquisitions.

“I think we have lots of opportunity in the UK. We are an ambitious organisation. David’s mission for me is to carry on and double the size of this business in the UK.”

He pointed out that Aston Lark has done 40 deals since it was created by the merger of Aston Scott and Lark in 2017 and he’s certainly not going to stop now the business has found a “forever home”.

Blanc said: “If anything, I think we now become an even more compelling home for M&A.

“People often say to me, ‘Peter, we like the sound of Aston Lark, we’d like to come and join you but we’re a bit concerned by the fact you’re private equity owned and, can you look us in the eye and promise us we aren’t all going to be working for Aon in a couple of years time?’ I can now look them in the eye and promise where they will be for the next 25-years.”

Deals
He added: “The vision for us is to absolutely carry on making the right acquisitions. We’ve got no desire to be the biggest broker in the world but we do want to be the best broker in the world so we’ll look to make high quality acquisitions and I will continue to do exactly what I have been doing over the last few years.”

In the deal announcement David Howden remarked that the Aston Lark deal signified the “completion” Howden’s UK proposition. But, this doesn’t mean further large deals have been completely ruled out: “Never say never,” Blanc remarked.

“We will be hot to trot and keen as mustard to acquire the right businesses who are a good cultural fit.”

Private equity
While Blanc is very proud of what Aston Lark achieved under the private equity ownership of Goldman Sachs and Bowmark Capital he was pleased to find a long-term home for the business and be part of an employee-owned business.

Bowmark backed Blanc’s buyout of Aston Scott in 2015 and Goldman Sach’s invested around £320m as recently as 2019.

He explained: “I am proud of what we have achieved. When I bought Aston Scott in 2015 it was a £5m Ebitda business and we are now a £67m Ebitda business.

“We’ve made over 40 acquisitions over the last six years so it is a phenomenal growth journey and I am delighted we have been able to transition the business into a home where we can carry on the journey but carry on without the worry of what the next private equity investor is going to do.”

He added: “We’ve been on the private equity rollercoaster and while private equity is great and gives you money for acquisitions but the downside is that after a few years there always has to be another transaction when the business is sold to the next home.

“This represents an opportunity of getting into a forever home because Howden has a unique structure where the biggest group of shareholders is the employees.”

Model
According to Blanc employee-ownership is the way forward for broker businesses. He told Insurance Age that Howden was the perfect place for Aston Lark because, in addition to being a “forever home” it already had a similar employee ownership model.

He said: “It is a combination that works because, as you know, Aston Lark is 30% employee-owned. When we were looking around for the next home what really appealed is that Howden has exactly the same culture and 30% of the Howden business is also owned by employees and staff.

“We really liked the shared culture and this gave an opportunity for all of our shareholders to roll their investment into Howden and be part of a long-term future.”

Talent
He believes this type of business model is key to attracting the best talent.

“Private equity clearly has its place, but I believe companies do really well when they have proper alignment with their employees and as many senior people as possible are aligned as shareholders. It creates that collegiate atmosphere which I think is vital in broking.

“Broking is all about people and talent and for us to attract the best people, being able to say ‘you are joining an employee-owned business where you can generate wealth for you and your family’ I think is really powerful,” Blanc insisted.

Future
Going forward, Blanc admitted that the longer-term plan is to replace the Aston Lark brand with that of Howden.

Aston Lark will stay for the short term but in the long term it will look to move the whole business on to the Howden brand.

Blanc said the combined businesses have the luxury of time to build the brand as they are not beholden to private equity timescales; “This is about the next 25 years, not the next 25 months.

“There is no sword of Damocles that says we have to do everything by January 1. We will take our time, get it right and be culturally sensitive.”

He continued: “It is going to take some time to do the rebrand but ultimately the plan is we will all, one day, be branded as Howden to give real brand leverage. We want the general public to actually know the brand.

“It is a real problem in the insurance industry that not many brokers have any brand presence. This give us a real opportunity to build a broker with an amazing brand – a real powerhouse that is able to do everything from the smallest private individual to the biggest corporate.”

Long term
Blanc is now in it for the long haul with Howden, after selling four broking businesses in his career. He is has rolled his investments back into Howden and laughed that he is “hog-tied and happy to be so” for the long term.

He added: “I want to be able to look back when I am 60 and see Howden as the undisputed number one broker in the UK, Europe and internationally.”

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