Private equity's appetite for insurance distribution shows no sign of slowing. EQT has agreed to buy a majority stake in McGill and Partners, the London specialty broker built from scratch by former Aon group president Steve McGill CBE, in a deal valuing the business at $2.0 billion. The Swedish buyout house is acquiring the stake from Warburg Pincus, the US private equity firm that bankrolled McGill's 2019 launch. McGill's management team will retain a meaningful ownership stake going forward.
The deal lands in the same week that KKR agreed to sell USI Insurance Services to Aon in a transaction reported at approximately $17 billion - a deal that reportedly delivered KKR roughly six times its original investment. Put the two transactions side by side and a theme is difficult to miss. Private equity firms that got into insurance distribution years ago are now exiting at multiples that would have looked implausible a decade ago, while buyers keep paying up regardless. Specialty and mid-market broking has become one of financial services' most reliably profitable corners, and financial sponsors have noticed.
McGill and Partners is not a conventional broker. Built around complex, high-value risk in sectors including aviation, marine, energy and financial lines, the firm has operated from the outset on a no-legacy-technology, no-bolt-on-acquisitions model, running on a unified technology stack designed for clean, structured data and seamless integration. Its backers argue that architecture has made it faster to modernise than rivals carrying decades of stitched-together systems.
The numbers support the argument. The broker posted organic revenue growth of more than 20% and a 79% jump in adjusted EBITDA in the first half of 2025 compared with the same period a year earlier. It completed a $300 million refinancing from Morgan Stanley, Permira and Bridgepoint last September. Reports first surfaced in January that Warburg was sounding out advisers about a sale that could fetch north of $1 billion. The confirmed $2 billion figure is double that early guidance.
McGill and Partners was founded in May 2019 by Steve McGill CBE alongside a core senior team including chairman John Lloyd, Stephen Cross and Karl Hennessy, with Warburg Pincus providing the cornerstone investment. In seven years the firm has grown into a scaled global specialty business with revenues in excess of $250 million, more than 600 colleagues across seven countries, and over 1,000 sophisticated insurance and reinsurance clients.
Under EQT's ownership, the plan is to accelerate organic growth through talent recruitment, further development of technology and data capabilities, and expansion of the firm's US and international client portfolio. Miriam Tawil, partner at EQT Private Equity, said the firm's growth mindset was well-aligned with McGill and Partners' vision and that the focus would be on accelerating growth of its US and international client portfolio, further connecting the world to the Lloyd's and London market.
That US growth angle is the most directly relevant element for a domestic audience. McGill already operates a New York center of excellence and a dedicated US subsidiary, McGill Global Risk Solutions, giving EQT an existing platform to build from rather than entering the market cold.
Steve McGill CBE said turning what was an idea seven years ago into a $2 billion global specialty enterprise was an achievement the whole firm was incredibly proud of, and described EQT's track record of backing high-growth, technology-enabled businesses as making them the right partner for the next stage. He added that the firm was deeply grateful for the backing and guidance of Warburg Pincus across the seven years of their partnership.
Matthias Wittkowski, global co-head of services and partner at EQT Private Equity, said McGill and Partners had established a strong position in specialty insurance broking underpinned by impressive organic growth, and that EQT was thrilled to partner with McGill and the team at an exciting point in the business's growth trajectory as they scaled what he described as a clearly differentiated platform.
James O'Gara, managing director and partner at Warburg Pincus, said the firm had had enormous conviction from day one in the shared vision for what McGill and Partners could become, and that the outcome spoke for itself.
There is a surface-level contradiction in the current M&A wave. Pricing across specialty insurance lines has been softening, and listed broker valuations at the largest firms have come under some pressure. Add the lingering question of whether AI eventually automates parts of the placement process, and buyer caution might be expected.
Instead, deal flow has accelerated. The explanation is structural. Brokers earn commission on premium volume and renewal business rather than underwriting risk directly, which produces the kind of steady, predictable, contract-backed revenue that suits a leveraged buyout model. High client retention rates compound that stability. In a market where many asset classes are repricing, a well-run specialty broker with a modern technology stack and a defensible client base looks increasingly attractive to financial sponsors looking for durable cash flow.
That is the model McGill was built to exemplify. EQT has acquired it at a price that reflects how scarce genuinely clean, high-growth specialty broking platforms have become.
KKR first backed USI in 2017 at a $4.3 billion valuation. EQT is acquiring McGill at $2 billion after seven years of organic-only growth from a standing start. Both exits point to the same conclusion: scale, technology investment and a clean balance sheet command a meaningful premium from both strategic and financial buyers, and that premium is not compressing.
EQT also has other insurance bets in play. The firm is separately said to be weighing a possible London listing for CFC, the cyber-focused specialty insurer it has backed alongside Vitruvian Partners since 2021, with speculation suggesting a valuation north of $6 billion.
For US brokers and MGAs tracking their own positioning, the McGill transaction is another data point in the same direction. The buyers are active, the multiples are high, and the characteristics they are paying for - organic growth, modern infrastructure, specialist talent, no acquisition overhang - are increasingly well understood on both sides of the negotiating table.
