Paul Chainey aiming to double Miles Smith turnover after private equity deal

Paul Chainey,  the chief executive officer of Miles Smith, is confident that the broker will go from strength to strength after Pollen Street Capital bought a majority stake just before Christmas.

“I’m absolutely certain we can double our turnover in the next five years,” he told Insurance Age.

The deal for Miles Smith, which has £170m of GWP and over 220 staff, saw MS Amlin exit from its 26% stake as well as retiring shareholders leaving the business.

However, Chainey stressed that the management team remains the same with many directors and senior staff continuing to be shareholders.

“It was time to again reinvigorate Miles Smith which has had great organic growth for the best part of a decade and move it on to another level.”

Options
He admitted that the business had looked at other options.

“We could have gone to a bank or a trade sale but we felt it worked far better for our clients, staff and shareholders to go down the private equity investor route.”

According to Chainey the growth will come from expanding its schemes and affinities business, corporate risk retail offering and also buying businesses and adding new staff.

“We will be able to do strategic M&A work to widen our horizon and seek like-minded souls in the London Market and the schemes and affinities provincial market.”

Deals
The company has a track record of striking deals and he reaffirmed its commitment and financial firepower.

“Miles Smith with Pollen Street has considerable resources to fund any strategic M&A we wish to undertake in the next five years,” he summed up.

As to the choice of Pollen Street Capital, he listed that the private equity house was a specialist in financial services, particularly for regulated firms, and had invested over £1.2bn.

“They are all about developing Miles Smith ability to increase our revenue,” adding: “They do tend to specialise in niche businesses.

“We have a similar profile of clients and they understand the nature of our clients.”

Broker partners
And he maintained that the news had been well received by the wholesaler’s partner brokers of which it has over 1,000.

“Our brokers are very happy that we have a backer that is driven towards the business we already do and supporting opportunities in the future which will include our partner brokers.

“It will not change.”

Chainey listed that advisors Deloitte and law firm HFW had been supportive throughout the eight month process to find the new owners.

He concluded: “We are over the moon. We have worked very hard to get the right partner and are very confident that we have it in Pollen Street.”

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