Both organisations have previously run the rule over Swinton and could now bid.
Numerous sources have tipped up Ardonagh and Markerstudy as leading insurance contenders in the race to buy Swinton.
Yesterday Insurance Age revealed that the general expectation is for Swinton to be sold to a private equity house.
However, a market source insisted that Ardonagh was “definitely in the mix”.
The source confirmed that the group had previously considered making a swoop for Manchester-headquartered Swinton and was still open to making a move.
“They [Ardonagh] might have a slight advantage with backers with deep pockets that are more nimble,” they continued.
But accepted that in terms of potential bidders: “Ardonagh is one in a fairly long list.”
Ardonagh declined to comment.
Autonet
The theory espoused yesterday was that the natural home within Towergate-owning Ardonagh Group would be Autonet.
After Ardonagh bought Carole Nash in October 2017 the business was put under the leadership of Autonet boss Ian Donaldson.
Autonet also opened an office in Manchester in March 2017.
Swinton is predominantly known as a major player in personal lines with over £750m GWP, it is an area in which van-specialist Autonet is also strong.
However, the fit goes further.
Swinton is known to have north of £40m of GWP in commercial lines while Autonet has over £10m.
Manager
One broker, who declined to be named, stated: “There would be consolidation of office space and you have a complete middle tier of management where you would only need one of each.”
The broker also flagged that Autonet had the managerial expertise to make any deal work.
It recruited Steve Murphy as director of commercial trading in March last year.
Murphy had spent 28 years at Swinton latterly as head of insurer development.
Markerstudy
However a separate source flagged Markerstudy’s track record.
According the expert close to the business Markerstudy “looked closely at Swinton for a long time many years ago”.
When Markerstudy’s insurance companies were bought by Qatar Re at the start of this year the group underwriting director Gary Humphreys told Insurance Age that the firm was keen to start buying brokers and saw “lots of opportunities in the market”.
The company has vast experience of retail and any deal for Swinton would mean access to transferring the renewal books into its underwriting arm.
The un-named expert stressed that Markerstudy was certainly “interested in having a look”.
They counselled though that they believed there had been no discussions so far.
Road
A price of £400m has been touted for Swinton.
The source said they felt it was a sensible ballpark figure but pinpointed how far Swinton was along the road in its ambition to become the UK’s largest digital broker and branch closure programme remained an issue.
“From a trading perspective they are still six to eight months away from completing that which could impact the value,” they concluded.
Swinton could not be reached for comment.
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