JMG Group has brought three businesses into its network – Jaggi Insurance Brokers, Canfield Payne Insurance Consultants, and Safetynet Scotland – marking its latest round of consolidation across England and Scotland, announced June 2, 2026. The three transactions cover distinct segments of the insurance and risk services market. Two are commercial and personal lines brokers, while the third is a health and safety consultancy.
Together, they add operations in London, West Sussex, and Aberdeen to JMG’s existing footprint. Financial terms were not disclosed for any of the deals. The acquisitions reflect a pattern common among mid-market insurance consolidators in the UK: targeting owner-managed or family-run firms with embedded client bases and specialist knowledge in specific sectors or geographies, rather than pursuing volume-driven growth through larger institutional targets.
Jaggi Insurance Brokers has operated in London since 1972, when Jagdish Chaudhry founded the business. His son, Akhil Chaudhry (pictured centre), now leads the firm, which employs 12 people and works across commercial and personal lines, with particular focus on property, construction, manufacturing, and specialist commercial risks.
The transition into JMG’s group structure represents a generational shift for the business while preserving its family-run character, at least in the near term. “We want clients to feel like we’re part of their business and know they can pick up the phone whenever they need advice or support. Our relationships are built on trust and reliability and that has always mattered to us. We’ve built real momentum over the years, and this move gives us the support to continue growing while staying true to who we are,” Akhil Chaudhry said.
Canfield Payne Insurance Consultants has been operating for more than 25 years out of West Sussex, serving clients across the UK in commercial and personal lines. Its book includes property, high-net-worth home insurance, and commercial risks. A notable portion of the firm’s business has come through client referrals and repeat instructions rather than outbound sales activity – a dynamic that typically indicates strong retention and client satisfaction, though the firm did not provide specific figures.
Managing director St John Canfield Payne (pictured left) said the move was aimed at broadening the firm’s access to insurer markets and technical resources. “Joining JMG gives us access to wider insurer relationships, additional expertise, and the backing of a larger independent group. It creates opportunities for our team and helps us continue improving the service we provide to clients,” he said.
Safetynet Scotland operates out of Aberdeen and has been in the health and safety consultancy market for more than two decades. It serves organisations in agriculture, manufacturing, construction, and care, providing services that include health and safety consultancy, fire risk assessments, and ISO management systems. For JMG, the deal represents an expansion of its non-broking capabilities in Scotland, moving further into the compliance and risk management space.
Craig Cooper (pictured right), managing director of Safetynet Scotland, pointed to cultural fit as a deciding factor. “From our earliest conversations with JMG, it was clear there’s a strong alignment in terms of culture, philosophy, and approach. Joining the group lets us continue delivering the service our clients value, while giving them access to additional services and expertise,” he said.
Nick Houghton, chief executive officer of JMG Group, framed the three deals as consistent with the group’s broader strategy of acquiring firms where leadership and client relationships are considered the primary assets. “These businesses share a commitment to looking after clients properly and building relationships that last. They have experienced teams, respected reputations, and leadership that care about their people and customers,” Houghton said.
He also addressed how JMG intends to manage the businesses post-acquisition. “We remain focused on supporting businesses as they grow, while allowing them to retain the identity and service standards that made them successful in the first place. We’re delighted to welcome all three teams to the group,” he said. The approach – acquiring and retaining rather than integrating and rebranding – has become a recognisable model among UK insurance consolidators seeking to preserve the goodwill embedded in smaller regional brokers.
The JMG transactions sit within a wider M&A environment that is producing contradictory signals depending on the metric and market segment being examined. At the upper end of the deal size spectrum, activity surged in early 2026. WTW’s Quarterly Deal Performance Monitor recorded 12 completed transactions valued at US$10 billion or more between January and March – the highest quarterly figure since the firm began tracking in 2008, and a sharp increase from just two in the prior quarter. Total completed deal value for Q1 2026 reached US$438 billion, representing a 155% increase from the same period in 2025 and a five-year high.
Acquirer performance also improved materially. Companies that closed deals above US$100 million outperformed their benchmark index by 2.5 percentage points in Q1 2026, according to WTW – a reversal from Q4 2025, when the same cohort underperformed by 13.9 percentage points against the MSCI World Index, the weakest single quarter in WTW’s dataset. European buyers were the strongest regional performers in Q1 2026, outperforming by 6.0 percentage points across 40 deals. North American acquirers underperformed by 5.4 percentage points across 117 transactions, though that marked an improvement from the preceding quarter.
Aggregate deal volume told a different story, however. GlobalData’s analysis of January and February 2026 activity, published March 24, 2026, found that total deal volume across M&A, private equity, and venture financing fell around 7% year-on-year globally. M&A specifically contracted by 12% over that period, while private equity deal volume dropped 32%. Venture financing was the only category to grow, rising 5% year-on-year. Within that context, the UK was among the more stable markets, with deal volume running roughly flat compared with the same period in 2025, according to GlobalData. That relative stability in the UK mid-market supports conditions in which regional insurance consolidation can continue at pace, even as broader transaction volumes face downward pressure.
