United Risk, the international property and casualty insurance underwriting and distribution platform headquartered in New York, has successfully completed its acquisition of Australia’s Pinnacle Underwriting Pty Ltd and its affiliate Pinnacle Holdings Group Pty Ltd. The financial terms of the transaction have not been disclosed.
Established in 2019, Pinnacle Underwriting is a specialist facultative reinsurance managing general agent (MGA) based in Sydney, with additional offices in Melbourne, Singapore, and Dubai.
The MGA manages a book of reinsurance business, with 70% of its premium coming from the Asia Pacific region and the remainder primarily from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). It specialises in facultative reinsurance for property, power generation and utilities, onshore oil and gas, and political violence and terrorism. Pinnacle’s property business accounts for nearly 80% of its writings.
Hayden Smith, United Risk’s Regional CEO for Asia and Australia, said the deal places United Risk “squarely within the top five largest MGAs in the world,” adding that the business “has now achieved a diversified scale and geographic reach matched by few, if any, of its peers.”
Smith also said that United Risk has methodically divested of nearly all property exposure in the US and that the acquisition immediately rounds out United Risk’s portfolio by line. “Gaining meaningful market exposure through reinsurance makes a lot of sense to us as we work to diversify globally.”
As part of the deal, Jon Gilliott, Founder and CEO of Pinnacle Underwriting, becomes a partner at United Risk.
“Pinnacle has a nurtured, entrepreneurial culture, yet, ours is a highly technical business: we will benefit from this strategic partnership – one in which our values and the level of underwriting sophistication are shared,” said Gilliott. “As its founder, I am enthusiastic about continuing to lead Pinnacle’s advancement and progress to a new level,” he added.
United Risk Global is independently owned and operated by its practice partners and is affiliated with Applied Underwriters. Its home office is in New York. Insurance Advisory Partners and Ashurst LLP served as exclusive financial and legal advisors to Pinnacle Underwriting, while Clyde & Co advised United Risk on the transaction.
