The two bosses of a specialist insurance start-up are in line for about £30 million each after selling a stake in their business to one of the world’s largest insurers.
Dawn Bhoma, 47, and Rob Brown, 54, are set for windfalls from the deal with Zurich Insurance Group, which has agreed to buy a 49 per cent shareholding in their company Icen Risk. The transaction puts a price tag of about £150 million on Icen, a London-based provider of insurance cover used in mergers and acquisitions, less than seven years after it was set up.
Brown was an early pioneer of M&A insurance in the Lloyd’s of London insurance market and first began working with Bhoma, who was a City tax lawyer, in 2012. They founded Icen with two others in November 2018 and the company now has 25 employees, including staff in Madrid, Milan and Vienna.
Using capital provided by other insurers, including Zurich and firms operating at Lloyd’s, Icen offers insurance that protects companies and individuals from the risks arising from buying and selling businesses. This includes providing cover for unexpected tax liabilities and protecting intellectual property that might be at the heart of a deal. Its clients include private equity firms, corporates and entrepreneurs.
Brown said that demand for M&A insurance increased in the wake of the 2007-9 financial crisis when “buyers were very rightly cautious because of the environment”. He said: “It accelerated the growth of the market.”
Bhoma and Brown will continue to run the business as its managing principals after the deal with Zurich completes. The plan is for Icen to use the backing of the Swiss insurer to help it expand elsewhere in Europe, including in Germany, and in North America.
Stephen Moss, an executive at Zurich who will join the Icen board, said the tie-up was “ideally timed to capitalise on market shifts and the long-term growth potential in M&A insurance. Icen has become the quality player in this niche sector in a short space of time and Rob and Dawn’s track record in the market is unrivalled.”
