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Truist Financial (TFC) Agrees to Buy BenefitMall From Carlyle

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Truist Financial Corporation’s (TFC - Free Report) subsidiary, Truist Insurance Holdings, has entered an agreement to acquire the nation’s largest benefits wholesale general agency, BenefitMall, from funds managed by The Carlyle Group Inc. (CG - Free Report) . While the financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed yet, the transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of 2022.

The acquisition is expected to add $150 million in annual revenues to Truist Insurance Holdings’ wholesale division.

Serving clients for more than 40 years, BenefitMall provides medical, dental, life, vision and long-term care benefits solutions through its network of 20,000 retail brokers. The company also provides employee benefits to more than 140,000 small and medium-sized businesses across the country, leveraging a combination of innovative technology and human expertise to deliver seamless benefits selling experience for its carriers, brokers and their clients.

TFC’s chairman and CEO, Bill Rogers, stated, “As Truist Insurance Holdings celebrates its centennial year, investing in our insurance capabilities and offerings continues to be a top priority. This acquisition of BenefitMall enables us to further diversify the solutions we offer to our clients and create an enhanced client experience, which is at the core of our purpose to inspire and build better lives and communities.”

The chief insurance officer of TFC, John Howard, said, “With this acquisition, CRC Group will provide the broadest selection of products and services available from a wholesale broker today. Whether it is property and casualty; life, annuity and long-term care; or now employee benefits, CRC Group's nationwide network of specialists are all focused on one goal – delivering success for our retail agency partners.”

BenefitMall’s CEO, Scott Kirksey, commented, “We are proud of the growth we have achieved through our partnership with Carlyle and look forward to the exciting opportunity ahead to continue to deliver the fastest, easiest and most trusted benefits selling experience as part of the Truist team.”

James Burr, the managing director on the financial services team at CG, said, “Since we began investing in the business in 2017, BenefitMall has accomplished significant growth through a focus on broker technology enablement and investment in human capital in addition to successfully completing more than eight strategic acquisitions to transform into the market-leading wholesale benefits business.”

Over the past year, shares of TFC have lost 14.2% compared with a decline of 18.8% recorded by the industry.

 

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Currently, Truist Financial carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

A better-ranked stock from the same space is M&T Bank Corporation (MTB - Free Report) . The Zacks Consensus Estimate for MTB’s 2022 earnings has been revised 2.1% upward over the past 30 days.

In the past year, its shares have gained 28%. Currently, MTB carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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