Artex
After Artex’s acquisition of Chandler Insurance Management, David McManus explains that the company is set for continued expansion both organically and through acquisition
What were the reasons behind the Chandler Insurance Management acquisition?
Chandler is a great example of what we refer to as a ‘tuck-in’ merger. This is where we attract smaller teams, or individuals, to become part of our team in an existing domicile, bringing on their clients and associates.
Chandler has been in this business for almost 30 years. The company has a very stable, high-quality client list, many of which have licences dating back to the 1980s and 90s. Accounts like this have proven their loyalty and worth and as CEO Steve Butler began to think about succession planning, he in turn wanted to ensure continuity of service and long-term security for his valued clients. A merger with Artex immediately achieves that, but also provides access to a deeper platform of services available through our scale and broader geographic reach.
How will Artex benefit from the acquisition? And how will it expand the company’s captive capabilities?
Along with the great book of business, Artex acquires Butler and Beverly Hodkin’s knowledge, expertise and market relationships, adding depth and scale to our talent pool.
Artex now has over 100 captive clients in Cayman, which represents a wealth of knowledge across a wide range of industries and multiple lines of business, ensuring that we continue to build the resources necessary to empower our clients and prospects around the world.
As part of the acquisition, Butler and Hodkin joined the captive team in Cayman. Butler is joining as client services director, while Hodkin will assume a senior account manager role. Both will primarily work on existing Chandler business, but will also contribute to the overall growth of our Cayman operation through their support of our new business development activities.
In 2016, Artex acquired Kane Insurance Management, also domiciled in Grand Cayman. What is it that attracts you to that domicile?
Very few domiciles have been around as long as Cayman. They continue to innovate, but have never diluted their focus on captives. They have a particularly deep understanding of group captives through which they drive healthy annual growth not evident within the publication of new captive formation numbers.
Artex is a leader in the group captive business and Cayman’s prudent, but creative, approach to capitalisation was decisive in choosing to domicile our newest group captive, Command, there in 2016. Beyond groups, Cayman continues to be an important domicile for new Artex captives and we expect to be responsible for around 20 percent of the new licences issued in Cayman in 2017.
This is evidence of the great relationship that our experienced team on the island have with their professional counterparts in Cayman Island Monetary Authority. Chandler’s strong reputation built through Steve Butler and Beverly Hodkin can only enhance that relationship.
Looking ahead to 2018, what plans do you have for your captive offerings? Are you planning any expansions?
Artex will continue to expand both organically and through acquisition. Organically, we bring hundreds of new captive customers to the industry each year through the growth of our group captives, the wide variety of cell captives we offer in multiple domiciles and the formation of new single parent captives. From an acquisition point of view, we’re looking at opportunities to expand geographically in Northern and Central Europe and Asia-Pacific regions, but also hope to do many more ‘tuck-ins’ in existing domiciles of the size and quality of Chandler.
