Global broker Arthur J Gallagher is seeking brokerages in Australia and New Zealand to add to the OAMPS and Crombie Lockwood businesses it bought from Wesfarmers.

CFO Douglas Howell says the US-based company typically picks well-run family businesses looking to “monetise their life’s work” while remaining in the industry.

“That is one of the reasons we are so excited about now having a platform in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and a bigger platform in the UK, because we see lots of small family broker opportunities in those countries also,” he told a conference last week.

Gallagher bought the Wesfarmers broking businesses, plus associated premium funding operations, for $1.01 billion. Last month it also acquired Canadian broker Noraxis.

Mr Howell says OAMPS and Crombie Lockwood are respected, large franchises that have expanded through acquisitions and will benefit from being part of a global insurance broker rather than a conglomerate.

“They look and act and behave almost identically to how we operate in the US,” he said.

“We can kind of talk in shorthand and it works very well. We have already seen some tremendous opportunities starting to develop.”

Mr Howell says repatriating earnings from recent acquisitions will not create US tax imposts because Gallagher has “an abundance” of tax credits from clean coal investments, which it can use to achieve an overall global tax rate below 15%.

US companies often have problems bringing money into the country from lower-tax regimes, he told the conference.

“We are more than happy to bring the cash home, pay our fair share of taxes and then realise the benefit of the tax credits.”