The $7.7 billion buyout of Steadfast Group cleared a procedural hurdle this week. If the buyout goes ahead, it will not change how Rothbury Insurance Brokers runs, according to managing director Roger Abel (pictured). In a recent interview, he told Insurance Business the deal may instead hand the New Zealand broker fresh acquisition targets.
On Friday, Steadfast received approval from the Supreme Court of New South Wales to convene the shareholder meeting that will decide this huge transaction. Under the proposed carve-up, Amwins takes the underwriting agency business and a Dragoneer and KKR vehicle takes the retail broking network – the side Rothbury sits alongside.
“We've been part of the Steadfast Broker Network since March 2013. And at that very same time, they were going public and they became a shareholder in us,” Abel said. “And so that's been 13 years that they've been a shareholder, and we've actually grown together over that time.”
Steadfast’s stake has not stood still over those 13 years. In its FY26 results presentation lodged with the ASX in August, Steadfast disclosed an effective ownership interest of 67.81% in Rothbury. The shift came in FY25, when Steadfast reclassified Rothbury from an associate to a subsidiary and booked a one-time gain of $157.4 million on gaining control.
Rothbury is now a material contributor to its parent’s earnings. The step-up in Steadfast’s Rothbury holding added $24.0 million to group EBITA in FY26, or 4.1 percentage points of the 13.8% growth Steadfast reported for the year.
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Amwins, Dragoneer and KKR are not seeking to acquire a company that holds a minority interest in New Zealand’s third-largest broker. They are acquiring a company that owns roughly two thirds of it. Abel characterised the relationship as a mutual one with Steadfast as a shareholder but his firm driving the business.
The managing director said his initial reaction to the takeover bid was uncertainty and that his view has firmed since. He has twice stood in front of staff – first commercial brokers and support, then the whole company – with slides, telling them the transaction would change little for Rothbury.
“So I would say for our brokers and our leaders and the things we do, it really is business as usual,” he said.
He sees disruption in the Steadfast network in New Zealand as a source of deal flow and he named the vehicle he would use. Evolve is the partnership programme under which Rothbury brings independent brokerages into its business.
“The one thing that I'd counter that with, funnily enough, is that I think that Steadfast does have some smaller brokers here in New Zealand that there may be some opportunities for us to have an Evolve conversation with that would give us some consolidation opportunities,” he said. “So ironically, I think it is only positive for Rothbury.”
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Rothbury has already bought a Steadfast-owned New Zealand business once, acquiring Austinsure from Steadfast Group NZ Holdings in March 2024, a deal confirmed alongside senior leadership appointments made at Rothbury that year.
Put to him that a privately held American owner means less transparency than an ASX-listed one, Abel conceded the point was fair, then argued the trade runs both ways. Abel said he was asked for years whether Rothbury would go public and never liked the idea.
“I always said, oh my God, it doesn't sound like much fun, in all honesty,” he said.
The ASX quarterly reporting cycle and demand for growth when business isn’t always like that, he said, was never very appealing.
“The US share market doesn't quite have that approach,” said Abel. “It's far more longer-term strategy and will accept shorter-term returns.”
However, a broker-owner weighing a partnership with Rothbury can currently read Steadfast's audited accounts and segment reporting and see what the shareholder is worth. If the scheme completes, that level of transparency disappears.
Asked whether consolidation risks leaving New Zealand clients with too few genuinely independent brokerages, Abel said roughly two thirds of the New Zealand insurance market is placed through brokers. Within that share he estimated that Gallagher holds about 22-23%, Aon about 17-18% and Rothbury and Marsh about 8% each. He said he sees room for Rothbury to reach up to 12%.
His conclusion was that no single player is close to a dominant market position and so concentration is not a concern.
