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Independent insurance intermediary Cullum
Capital Ventures (CCV) announces today that it has completed its
fifth acquisition of the year, with the purchase of Newcastle based
broker, Bishop Skinner.
Established back in 1973, Bishop Skinner
currently employs over 50 people and controls £12 million of
premium. Current Managing Director, Don Jones, will continue to
lead the firm and the existing senior management team will have an
equity stake in the business going forward. The business will
continue to operate under the Bishop Skinner brand and will remain
in its current premises in Newcastle city centre.
CCV Chief Executive, Michael Rea, said:
“Bishop Skinner is an excellent business with a real focus on
delivering top-class service to its clients. I am delighted to
welcome Bishop Skinner and its entire staff to the CCV Group. This
acquisition gives CCV a real foothold in the North East, from which
we plan to develop our presence further. With recent acquisitions,
CCV now controls almost £250m of premium and, with a very healthy
pipeline of deals currently in due diligence, I expect CCV to
complete another six deals at least before the end of the
year.”
Commenting on CCV’s continuing acquisition
activity, Michael Rea went on to say:
“There was much speculation in the lead up to
the budget on potential changes to capital gains tax, and clearly
the Chancellor didn’t disappoint the pundits in pushing CGT up to
28% for higher rate tax payers. However, I don’t believe this will
have a detrimental impact on M&A activity in our part of the
industry, as relief for entrepreneurs was extended from £2 million
to £5 million. This was good news for the owners of the many medium
sized regional broking firms interested in full or partial sales of
their business, with whom we talk, and I am confident that we’ll
continue to see a healthy number of enquiries from brokers looking
to manage their exit strategy.”
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