Howden M&A

Bridging gaps between buyers and sellers

With almost 900 deals brokered in 2022 for some of the world’s largest investors, we have a proven track record in facilitating smooth M&A transactions with well-thought-out insurance solutions.

Within our team, you’ll find true subject-matter experts in a range of professional fields, including law, accountancy, tax, banking, private equity and of course, insurance.  

Our diverse expertise allows us to see problems from multiple different angles, enabling us to deliver innovative, creative and commercial solutions to the challenges you face.

This means we are much more than a traditional broker. We are an advisor, working closely with our clients to proactively identify risk and devise effective solutions.

We work with clients both directly and through their representatives.

So, if you are a finance professional, corporate advisor or legal counsel, you can trust in our experience and skill to deliver the highest standard of service on behalf of your client.

We have experts on the ground in 15 countries, spanning the UK, Europe, Israel and Asia.

What do we do?

No two deals or clients are the same and every jurisdiction has its own unique nuances.

So, rather than taking the same cookie-cutter approach from one deal to the next, our experts take time to understand the underlying deal issues and use this knowledge to structure policies that genuinely address the dynamics of the deal and the needs of the client.

To enable us to do this as effectively as possible we have built a diverse team of professionals who have the knowledge and expertise to offer meaningful solutions across:

Warranty & Indemnity (“W&I”)

Expertly-tailored W&I cover provides the policyholder with financial protection against a breach of warranty or a claim under a tax indemnity, and is often an effective tool in simplifying deal negotiations.

Contingent Risks

Contingent risk will cover any losses that arise as a result of an identified risk crystallising. The specifics of what the policy covers will vary depending on the situation, but can include damages awards, settlements and other litigation or arbitration.

Title & Real Estate Risks

Covers for any losses arising out of both known and unknown risks relating to the legal title to real estate and shares. Title to shares and real estate policies provide broad cover for unknown title risks including sellers’ ownership and capacity to sell shares and real estate. Specific risk policies or ‘legal indemnity’ policies provide cover for known title risks identified in the due diligence process.

Tax Risks

Tax Risk Insurance is an efficient tool to manage the tax risk associated with a variety of corporate structures, transactional issues and other areas of tax uncertainty, whether M&A related or otherwise. In the event that the tax risk crystallises, the tax liability and any associated costs can be claimed directly from the insurer. This solution is often used to remove the need for indemnity/escrow and price adjustment in the context of M&A deals, and to give tax certainty and financial protection where used independently of M&A.

Environmental Liability

Environmental insurance is designed to protect you against losses that arise from pollution events and contaminated land. These losses can include obligations to clean up and remediate pollution, third-party claims for bodily injury and property damage, damage to biodiversity and natural resources, legal costs, business interruption and emergency response. Cover can be arranged as part of a transaction, or separately to cover contingent risks or operational exposures

Insurance Due Diligence & Advisory

Insurance Due Diligence within the M&A context is designed to help buyers assess the insurance risks and opportunities associated with investing in a company. Such due diligence exercises are hugely beneficial in enabling clients to make informed decisions about whether or not to proceed with a deal.

Lenders’ Insurance Advisory

Our LIA team provides insurance due diligence and advisory services to the senior debt providers of projects, which are financed on a limited and/or non-recourse basis. They work to ensure that lenders’ interest are appropriately protected prior to financial close and throughout the tenor of the loan, by identifying and analysing the projects risk exposures and contractual obligations to ensure they have been appropriately transferred or mitigated. Our LIA team have significant experience worldwide, with a core focus on the infrastructure, renewable energy and power sectors.

Balance Sheet Optimisation

Taking an innovative approach, we design new and bespoke solutions for our clients, designed to help optimise balance sheets and make better use of capital where it might otherwise be locked up due to regulation, litigation and/or other future or contingent obligations.  

SPACS

We can arrange multi-year policies aligned to the lifespan of the SPAC, designed to cover the directors liabilities with pre-agreed run off rates and options to waive change in control. Upon De-SPAC, we would then look to place the new listed company’s ongoing D&O insurance.

POSI (Public Offering of Securities Insurance)

We create bespoke cover for IPOs, debt and equity rights issues. This helps you limit and ring-fence your offering exposures. It protects directors’ liabilities and helps attract talent to your board.

If you don’t see the risks keeping you awake at night here, that doesn’t mean we don’t provide solutions for them.

If there is a particular risk that you are facing, even if you are not sure whether insurance can cover it, get in touch and our experts will be happy to explore it with you.

We are problem solvers first and foremost. We love a challenge!

Your best interest is our best interest

As a multinational, employee-owned business, Howden employees have a true entrepreneurial drive.

Every single specialist in our team is personally invested in delivering solutions that make a massive difference to your business.

The better we deliver for you, the better we do for ourselves. Our goals are perfectly aligned.

Technical excellence, as standard

We invest hundreds of thousands of pounds on training each year, and we have a dedicated training team who are personally accountable for making sure every single person on our team meets the highest standards of market knowledge and skill.

The quality of our people means we offer a truly unique advisory approach.

For each policy, we carry out a forensic analysis of the underlying risks you face, working with you to identify key pinch points. By identifying and understanding these risks at the start, we can generate competitive tension at the insurer selection stage,

This helps you benefit from broader cover, a smoother process and an end result perfectly tailored to your needs.

Built for innovation = stellar results

We make a point to hire from within the industries our clients work with. That way, when you deal with us, you’re dealing with a team that’s been ‘in the trenches’ in your space. A team that’s seen the problems and frustrations you deal with up-close.

This means our people are full of new, exciting and pragmatic ideas, putting us consistently at the forefront of innovations in insurance and capital solutions.

By truly understanding what makes your market ‘tick’, and applying our multi-disciplinary, outside-the-box way of thinking, we can develop risk solutions to help you grow, optimise capital and achieve your strategic objectives.

It’s a way of doing business that we think makes us special, and combined with our exact attention to detail, it allows us to deliver comprehensive financial protection.  

Market-leading in-house claims service

As one of the largest claims teams in the M&A market, handling more M&A claims and notifications than any other broker, our Legal, Technical and Claims team has built an enviable reputation for claims service delivery.

You’ll get ‘start-to-finish’ support throughout the claims process. Our team has dealt with hundreds of claims in the world of M&A. We understand how insurers approach claims and use our market knowledge to anticipate any issues which helps you avoid them. We also use our extensive relationships with insurers to negotiate the best outcomes for clients.

In other words, we understand how best to present your claim to insurers to achieve prompt positive outcomes.

Regulatory information for Howden M&A

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