ANV Group Holdings has completed the acquisition of Iris Insurance Brokers. The Blackstone Credit & Insurance-backed group, formed in December 2025, now operates managing general agent (MGA) incubation platforms on both sides of the Atlantic.
The transaction, originally announced in March 2026, received all required regulatory approvals. Iris, founded in 2000, is headquartered in London and employs approximately 40 people across offices in London and Southend.
Iris operates across three segments: a Lloyd's wholesale brokerage, Blink Intermediary Solutions, and Vivid Underwriters. The Lloyd's operation specialises in placing capacity for brokers, MGAs, and coverholders. Blink provides retail distribution services to most active UK retail brokers. Vivid, launched in 2025, operates as an MGA incubation platform and traded its first MGA in December of that year.
ANV was formed in December 2025 when AmTrust and Blackstone Credit & Insurance spun seven MGA and fee-based businesses into a new independent platform. The group has made multiple acquisitions since formation, with Specialty Comp Insurance Solutions (SCIS), a Texas-based workers' compensation MGA, among the most recent. SCIS generated approximately US$250 million in gross written premium in 2025, according to ANV.
The Iris acquisition extends ANV's incubation strategy to the UK. ANV LaunchPad, the group's US incubator launched in May 2026, has signed its first MGA venture: Hastings Tax Underwriters, focused on tax liability insurance. Vivid Underwriters provides a parallel incubation platform for the UK and Lloyd's market, with one MGA launch already completed.
Adam Karkowsky, chairman and chief executive of ANV, said Blink "immediately strengthens our distribution capabilities across the UK retail market." The Lloyd's brokerage broadens the group's access to specialty capacity, he said. Iris managing director Mark Hutley said the group intended to grow the Lloyd's brokerage, broaden Blink's UK reach and build out Vivid's MGA pipeline.
The acquisition arrives as specialty intermediaries continue to attract buyers despite a broader slowdown in UK insurance distribution M&A. Lloyd's brokers and MGAs accounted for 23% of UK distribution deals in 2025, the highest share in five years, per advisory firm MarshBerry. That share stands out given that UK deal volumes fell below 100 transactions for the first time since 2017, as several major consolidators pulled back.
Fitch Ratings identified Lloyd's access, scarcity value, and portfolio diversification as among the biggest drivers of specialty M&A in 2026. The agency warned that further consolidation could influence capacity panels in London as fewer groups come to control a larger share of market appetite. For UK brokers placing business through Iris's Lloyd's operation, the change of ownership raises practical questions about how capacity relationships and service terms may shift.
Delegated underwriting now accounts for approximately 45% of Lloyd's premium income, according to Lloyd's. That figure helps explain why platforms such as ANV target Lloyd's-connected MGA distribution as a preferred route to UK specialty market access. Capacity relationships, service terms, and Vivid's MGA pipeline will each be subject to scrutiny from UK brokers and counterparties over the next 12 months.
