Hub International has spent 13 years as a private equity trophy asset. The market is setting benchmark after benchmark for valuations (Space-X anyone?), and no doubt its PE investors smell great returns from that trophy. On Friday, the brokerage took the first formal step toward becoming a public company again, filing confidentially with the US Securities and Exchange Commission for an initial public offering that could push its valuation well above US$30 billion and mark the largest insurance broker listing in a generation.
The Chicago-based firm, backed by Hellman & Friedman since a US$4.4 billion acquisition in 2013, disclosed that it had submitted a draft registration statement to the SEC. The timing, price range and number of shares have not been determined. Hub said it plans to use proceeds for general corporate purposes including debt repayment. The filing confirms what Mergermarket had reported since May 2025: Hub has been systematically preparing for public markets, initiating Sarbanes-Oxley compliance, upgrading governance, and spending more than a year cultivating the crossover investor base - public-oriented mutual funds, hedge funds and sovereign wealth funds - that a large-cap IPO requires.
CEO Marc Cohen, who has led the firm since 2018, told Mergermarket in June 2025 that "an IPO is an option that we want to have on the table, so that when the time is right, we're ready to go." He personally conducted approximately 100 investor engagements over 15 months before the US$1.6 billion minority raise in May 2025 that set Hub's last private valuation at US$29 billion - the highest ever recorded for a private insurance brokerage.
The US$29 billion private valuation is the floor, not the ceiling, for what Hub is targeting. Public broker peers trade at significantly higher multiples. Marsh McLennan, Aon and Arthur J. Gallagher carry EV/EBITDA multiples of 16 to 18 times, according to investment banking analysis from March 2026. Ryan Specialty Holdings, the specialist wholesale broker that went public in 2021 and is Hub's closest public comparable by business profile, has traded at 16 to 18 times EBITDA since listing.
Hub reported 2025 brokerage revenue of US$4.75 billion, up 10.1% on the prior year, and gross revenue of US$5.28 billion. If the company generates EBITDA margins consistent with the mid-to-upper tier of the brokerage sector - typically 25% to 30% for platform-scale brokers - the implied EBITDA on gross revenue would be in the range of US$1.3 to US$1.6 billion. At a 16 to 18 times multiple consistent with public peers, that would suggest an enterprise value of US$21 to US$28 billion, broadly consistent with its current private valuation. At a 20 times multiple - which Gallagher and Marsh have periodically commanded - the figure rises above US$30 billion.
The debt repayment language in the filing is significant. Hub carries the leverage typical of a PE-backed rollup that has completed more than 660 acquisitions, including 49 in 2025 alone. Applying proceeds to deleveraging would improve the equity story for institutional buyers who watch net leverage ratios closely in the current interest rate environment.
Hub's business split - 41.6% commercial retail, 26.5% employee benefits, 12.3% personal lines, 9.6% wholesale and 1.0% investments - positions it as a diversified platform rather than a specialty-focused play. That breadth is both a strength and a modest discount to Ryan Specialty's premium wholesale and specialty positioning, which commands higher multiples because of its higher-margin product mix.
Insurance brokers have dominated the US IPO market since 2021, accounting for six of the 16 largest insurance sector listings, led by Ryan Specialty. That track record has given Hub a well-worn path rather than uncharted territory.
The structural argument for broker IPOs has not changed. Brokers earn fees and commissions for placing policies and servicing clients without taking underwriting risk. Their revenues renew annually and clients stay - top-tier brokers report retention rates above 90%. That combination of recurring revenue, low capital intensity and high margins makes broker earnings more predictable than those of underwriters, whose results can swing sharply with catastrophe losses. In a year when investors are scrutinising insurers' private credit exposure and watching for economic softening signals, the clean fee-income model of a broker is a relatively compelling alternative.
The IPO market also matters. US listings rebounded in April after a geopolitical disruption-driven lull, with companies across sectors returning to gauge investor appetite. Hub's confidential filing - which allows it to keep detailed financials private until closer to launch and withdraw without fanfare if conditions sour - is precisely the right mechanism for a company of this size navigating an uncertain market. Accelerant Holdings raised US$832 million in its June 2025 listing and Neptune Insurance Holdings completed a US$423.7 million IPO in September. Hub would be considerably larger than either, but the insurance sector has absorbed the recent listings without stress.
This is where the filing's significance extends beyond Hub itself. Private equity's involvement in insurance distribution has been one of the defining structural stories in the sector for a decade. The model - acquire brokers at 8 to 10 times EBITDA, integrate them into a platform that trades at 16 to 18 times, and exit at a premium - has generated exceptional returns when it works. Hub's own journey illustrates the arithmetic: a US$4.4 billion entry in 2013 to a US$29 billion valuation in 2025 represents a more than six-fold increase in enterprise value over 12 years.
A successful Hub listing at or above its private valuation would confirm that the public markets are prepared to price large PE-backed broker platforms at multiples competitive with organic strategic acquirers. That confirmation would have immediate consequences for the rest of the sector.
The most direct effect would be on exit valuations for the other major PE-backed platforms still in private hands. BRP Group, now trading as The Baldwin Group, went public in 2019 but several comparable platforms remain private equity-owned. A Hub IPO at 18 to 20 times EBITDA would establish a reference point that PE sponsors of competing platforms could use both to benchmark their own assets and to attract additional investment at higher implied valuations.
There is also a competitive dynamic. The large strategic acquirers - Gallagher, Brown & Brown, Marsh McLennan - have been absorbing PE-backed platforms. Gallagher's US$13.45 billion acquisition of AssuredPartners in 2025 and Brown & Brown's US$9.8 billion purchase of Accession Risk Management set the current benchmark for large platform deals at 14.5 to 16 times EBITDA. A public Hub trading at 18 to 20 times would widen the arbitrage between private acquisition prices and public market valuations - making IPO a more attractive exit than a strategic sale for sponsors whose platforms have reached Hub-like scale.
That dynamic could accelerate investment in mid-scale platforms now, on the theory that building to Hub-like scale before a potential window opens in 2027 or 2028 is the value-creating play. PE-backed broker M&A has been running at elevated levels throughout 2025 and into 2026, with midmarket deal multiples holding at 11.4 to 11.8 times EBITDA despite the broader rate environment. A successful Hub IPO would not compress those multiples - it would likely expand them, as sponsors re-price their expectations upward in light of demonstrated public market appetite.
The counterargument is that Hub's scale is exceptional and may not transfer. With US$5.28 billion in gross revenue and 21,000 employees across 570 offices, Hub has a breadth that few PE-backed competitors can replicate quickly. The discount between large platform transactions at 14 to 16 times and public market multiples at 16 to 18 times has persisted for years without forcing a compression. The fact that a listing is being attempted does not guarantee it will clear at public peer multiples.
But Hellman & Friedman has reason to be confident. The 13-year hold has allowed Hub to build genuine scale, demonstrated organic growth - 10% revenue growth in 2025 without relying solely on acquisitions - and a track record through multiple cycles. That is a different proposition from the leveraged rollup stories that have periodically disappointed public investors. Whether the public markets agree will become clear when Hub files its public registration statement and reveals the numbers behind the headline.
