BMS Group has acquired Gard Insurance, headed by industry veteran Craig Patterson, in its first acquisition of an Australian underwriting agency.

Gard was founded in 2015 and provides public and products liability and associated professional indemnity insurance to businesses ranging from SMEs to multinationals. It has offices in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.

The acquisition also includes Ale Underwriting, which focusses on property and casualty covers for hotels and pubs, licensed clubs, bars, restaurants, caravan parks, alpine accommodation, backpackers, modern short-term accommodation, boarding houses and one-off events.

The acquisition of the underwriting agency, which are also known overseas as managing general agents (MGA), follows a number of BMS purchases of Australian brokerages.

“Buying an MGA in Australia is aligned with our global strategy to diversify our international retail operations,” BMS Australian CEO Andrew Godden said.

“Both Gard and Ale have excellent underwriting capabilities and a stellar leadership team in Craig Patterson, Craig Walker, Dean Fiddes and Janelle Cox.” 

Mr Patterson has extensive insurance experience and has had senior roles at Austagencies, Aon Benfield, Aviva in the UK and at CGU/NZI. He will join BMS as Gard Executive Chairman, with a remit to grow and expand the business.

“We look forward to being part of a global speciality organisation with extensive risk expertise and market knowledge, and to the added capital that will allow us expand into more technical, niche segments that compliment our current offering,” Mr Patterson said.

Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.