Marco Del Carlo — Transcript

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1. 0:08I'm Marco Carlo. I'm the founder and
2. 0:10director of Access Assure Limited. Uh we
3. 0:13underwrite professional indeed business
4. 0:16in the UK.
5. 0:20We were actually approached by a number
6. 0:22of different buyers that uh you know the
7. 0:26emin market was quite buoyant and
8. 0:28everybody was looking for growth. We run
9. 0:30a very successful MGA business very lean
10. 0:34and profitable uh in terms of it and
11. 0:37while we were approached by a number of
12. 0:39different businesses that were out there
13. 0:41we were always looking for a solution
14. 0:43that is sort of like 1 plus 1 equals 3.
15. 0:45There's no point in selling our business
16. 0:46unless the acquiring business actually
17. 0:49adds value to our business. And that's
18. 0:52what I think we found in JMG.
19. 0:56The JMG M&A team was excellent to work
20. 1:00with. I mean, they were very seasoned
21. 1:02professionals,
22. 1:03knowledgeable about transactions, about
23. 1:06structures. You can see that they've
24. 1:07done this several times over and
25. 1:11information was ready to h ready at hand
26. 1:14um to be able to take everything to the
27. 1:16next stage. At each stage in the
28. 1:19process, we felt like we knew what was
29. 1:21going on and they had answers for all
30. 1:24the questions that we had in terms of
31. 1:26you know organization structure, legal
32. 1:28documentation, valuation.
33. 1:31Uh even when we went through a few
34. 1:33issues around valuation in terms of
35. 1:35arriving at that you know they could
36. 1:37actually bring in um you know industry
37. 1:40information and comparables and the rest
38. 1:42of it to kind of keep everyone's minds
39. 1:45um at rest that this made sense uh that
40. 1:50it was transparent um that um that
41. 1:53everything lined up and everybody would
42. 1:57would win as part of this
43. 2:00>> for us the it's our operating model at
44. 2:03the moment is very spreadsheet based in
45. 2:05terms of it. We're going to be moving to
46. 2:07more systems based uh solutions and I
47. 2:11think that for us it's a key enabler for
48. 2:13our business to being able to do more
49. 2:16business with less people um for us to
50. 2:19be a gamecher uh going forward. Uh I
51. 2:23think there's this whole series of of
52. 2:26projects on the the change program that
53. 2:28we still need to complete and execute uh
54. 2:31everything from you know regulatory
55. 2:34licenses, agency management, finance,
56. 2:37bank accounts and once we get through
57. 2:39all that I feel like you know our
58. 2:41organizations in a in a place now where
59. 2:43we can um really put kind of the past
60. 2:46behind us and get on with the future. At
61. 2:48the same time, one of the things that
62. 2:50we've been also been discussing has been
63. 2:51bringing together the various MGAs and
64. 2:54underwriting businesses to uh you know
65. 2:58to bring together basically under one
66. 3:00business unit and and operate as such to
67. 3:04fill up the portfolio of service
68. 3:05offerings in the market and once we
69. 3:08start to get there and start to mobilize
70. 3:10that we really see some strong growth
71. 3:13potential.
72. 3:15Number one thing was like I always think
73. 3:16about like does one plus one equal
74. 3:18three? So if it's if you can see that
75. 3:22anyone that is requiring that they can
76. 3:25genuinely add value to your business
77. 3:26because they bring you know licenses,
78. 3:29rating, distribution, they bring other
79. 3:32capabilities, systems, whatever that may
80. 3:35happen to be. They bring investment.
81. 3:37Those are all things that are really
82. 3:38valuable where you've got an acquirer
83. 3:41that's just looking to acquire and milk
84. 3:43the business by just working people
85. 3:44harder. I would say that's not a very
86. 3:47good relationship that's there from a
87. 3:49from that. You're not going to get a 1
88. 3:50plus 1= 3. Then I think it's culture
89. 3:53like what the corporate culture looks
90. 3:55like. I mean the you know whenever you
91. 3:58sell a business you're going to be
92. 3:59working with all the people that that
93. 4:02have acquired the business. So what do
94. 4:04they like? Do they share the same
95. 4:06values? Do they listen? Um do they um
96. 4:09you know how do they deal with um with
97. 4:12change with with conflict with different
98. 4:15appro different approaches um different
99. 4:17vision accordingly. So making sure that
100. 4:20there's I think you know common vision,
101. 4:23common values um you know that uh you
102. 4:27know you can continue to run and operate
103. 4:30the business and that the uh whoever the
104. 4:33buyer is um you know trusts you, enables
105. 4:37you um you know motivates you and adds
106. 4:39value to your business. That to me is
107. 4:42sort of the right fit um for any seller.