Howden Group’s profit after tax soared to £218m in 2022 – up 58% from £140m reported the previous year.
The global insurance broking group also spent more than £1.4bn on mergers and acquisitions and in recapitalising its various international subsidiaries over the 12 months.
The figures are from accounts for the latest financial year from 1 October 2021 to 30 September 2022, which saw significant investment activity from the business.
This included spending £1.07bn on its purchase of Aston Lark, £101m to buy SPF Private Clients and £119m and £68m on recapitalisations of Howden Italia and Howden Germany respectively.
Overall, the one year spending almost doubled Howden’s investment in subsidiary companies to £3.4bn.
Revenue up 60%
The firm said its performance was driven by record organic growth of 19%, matching that of a year earlier, and a 60% increase in revenue to £1.8bn, up from £1.5bn.
It noted that 1,000 new employees joined the group in 2022 excluding those from mergers and acquisitions.
Including this M&A activity, headcount increased by 4,100 with 400 senior practitioners joining over the last 24 months, with new initiatives contributing 20% of the group’s organic growth, it added.
Howden said the 31 completed acquisitions had transformed its position in key markets with its Assiteca subsidiary forming the third largest broker in Italy with 20 offices.
“The completion of Aston Lark in the UK builds on the APlan acquisition and takes the total investment in the UK to £2bn in the last 24 months,” it said.
“Howden is ranked by the Employee Ownership Association as the UK’s fifth largest employee-owned business.
“Align in the US has redefined the reach and access of Howden’s managing general agent (MGA) business, creating an international MGA group with over £2.2bn gross written premium.”
Howden Group CEO David Howden said the business had delivered “exceptional financial performance” led by 19% organic growth and that on a pro forma basis, it had almost doubled revenue in 12 months.
“Over the last 18 months, we have executed relentlessly on our strategy of building a business for, and over, the long term,” he said.
“We’ve done this by joining with other entrepreneurial companies who want to continue to grow and by attracting and retaining the best talent, all of whom share in our vision and passion.
“We have also established unrivalled reach and expertise in our home broking market of the UK and Ireland, and are a growing force in Europe.
“Almost half of our 31 acquisitions over the past twelve months were in continental Europe, and most recently that of March R.S. post-period end, reflecting our ambition to create a preeminent broking business of scale in Europe, a region that has long been our heartland.”
He also highlighted the continuing climate, macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainty and argued it was important that the insurance sector “challenge ourselves to find new ways of helping our clients confront a dynamic and interrelated risk environment”.
