Interest in insurance mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in Australia and New Zealand has surged, a report from deal room technology company Ansarada shows.

The number of general and life insurance deals starting in the financial year’s second quarter increased 200% compared with the first three months. Most of the potential deals were management buyouts and trade sales.

Ansarada uses “anonymised and aggregated” data from its systems to show the number of deals that are starting, providing a picture of trends before transactions are concluded.

CEO Sam Riley says risk and compliance, the search for growth and innovation benefits are among the drivers of M&A activity.

“Some of the more nimble innovators, especially around tech, are increasingly getting acquired by the larger providers,” he told insuranceNEWS.com.au.

The data shows an increase of more than 3000% in US-based interest in finance sector deals, as Australian assets in general prove attractive to offshore buyers.

“As a macro theme, interest in Australian assets from overseas is significantly up,” Mr Riley said.

“That has been the trend for the past three years and it continues to increase.”

Deals on average take about nine months to be concluded, according to past data.