Steadfast says its acquisition last year of HW Wood provided a platform to expand its London placement and wholesale broking offering, and it is looking at opportunities. 

The group completed the purchase of HW Wood’s London and Greece businesses and HWI France in December, and it has renamed its Steadfast Placement team HWS Speciality.

“We’ve also got a number of new opportunities in the London market,” Steadfast CEO Robert Kelly told a briefing yesterday.

“There are a couple of sections of HW Wood where we would like to be stronger.”

In the US, 27 agents have joined the ISU Steadfast network and 19 have left, with the new arrivals contributing a higher gross written premium and revenue.

International CEO Samantha Hollman says Steadfast has visited more than 50 ISU members in recent months to build relationships, and has outlined opportunities for “trapped capital” deals that allow an owner to partially sell their business while remaining involved.

“That skin in the game scenario is not a model that is widely known by the agency networks over there,” she said.

“A lot of them that are selling their businesses to private equity are just selling their entire business. We’re continuing to work will all the agents in that space to see what opportunities there are.”

The group is also looking at ISU technology improvements through platforms available in the US, rather than by introducing its Insight system.

Steadfast’s first-half underlying net profit rose 20.9% to $128.1 million as it achieved growth in a moderating market. 

Underlying earnings before interest, tax and amortisation increased 14.6% to $262.4 million, with organic growth accounting for 9.1% and acquisitions contributing 5.5%.

Australasian network brokers delivered a GWP increase of 7.9% to $6.5 billion and underwriting agencies GWP rose 11.7% to $1.22 billion.

For the year to date, Steadfast has completed acquisitions totalling $198.9 million, including increasing equity stakes in existing subsidiaries and international activity.

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