A new broker cluster has been formed in Melbourne to focus on business continuity opportunities, using key staff who formerly worked for OAMPS prior to its acquisition by Wesfarmers.

National Insurance Brokers Limited is currently in the process of obtaining an Australian financial services licence and is expected to announce its first acquisition by March 1.

The Chairman is Peter Thompson, former MD of Western United Insurance Brokers. Colin Cowden, founder and MD of Cowden Insurance Brokers, is a non-executive board member.

The new company’s Company Secretary is Peter Sharkey, who held the same role at OAMPS for 10 years until the Wesfarmers takeover.

Other key stakeholders in the new company are also former managers at OAMPS. They include former CFO Craig Harris, former National Planning and Business Integration Manager Charles Green (who left about 18 months ago), and the former Executive Director from 1998 to 2001, Kingsley Lamont. Former GE Premium Funding executive Miki Siminovski has also joined up.

National wants to build on the success of OAMPS in acquiring brokerages facing succession plan challenges. Media Liaison Officer Mark Silviera (also a former OAMPS manager) says small brokerages “have become too expensive for staff to purchase, so the succession plan has to change”.

He says most acquisitions will be 100%, with partial ownership considered depending on the size of the company. But National will allow all its companies to maintain their local presence and identity.

“We won’t consolidate the activities of the brokerages, but functions such as payroll and HR may be centralised,” he said.

Mr Silviera told Sunrise Exchange News there are many companies in National’s target sector.

“There’s almost the same number of brokerages again as there was when we were doing this at OAMPS,” he said. “There’s room in the market for us. There are plenty of opportunities.”

Mr Silviera says Austbrokers set the trend in terms of what the [broker] market wants from an acquisition. “We’re confident we will do well,” he said.