Australia’s Macquarie Bank has bought a 19.9 per cent stake in Lloyd’s underwriter Equity Red Star, the largest single source of motorcycle insurance cover for UK brokers.
It acquired this shareholding from private equity investor Aquiline Capital Partners, which completed a takeover of the loss-making Equity Red Star operation in April this year. Macquarie had advised Aquiline on that purchase.
Macquarie Capital’s European financial institutions group head Jonny Allison declined to comment on the amount that the bank paid but said it was on the same terms as Aquiline’s original bargain £87m buy-out. So that’s about £17m, then…
Speaking to Insurance Times, Allison added: “It is part of the Macquarie model that we are able to make co-investments with good partners. Having followed this transaction from a very early stage and having advised our client on it, we liked the deal, we thought the protections were pretty good and we liked the investment case.”