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Brown & Brown Buys FNI Management, Boosts Service Portfolio

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Brown & Brown, Inc.’s (BRO - Free Report) subsidiary, Brown & Brown of Kentucky, Inc. has recently acquired FNI Management Group. The buyout will add capabilities to its service portfolio. The financial details of the acquisition have been still kept undisclosed.

FNI Management Group has been offering finance and insurance products, as well as training to improve dealers’ financial performance in the Chicagoland market. The company generates about $1.5 million of annual revenues. The acquisition will help Brown and Brown consolidate its Midwest presence.

Post-acquisition, the acquired company will be part of the Brown & Brown auto, RV and powersports practice, and work with the Automotive Development Group team, which is led by Mike Neal, President of Brown & Brown of Kentucky, Inc.

Brown & Brown’s impressive growth is driven by both organic and inorganic means across all segments. Also, strategic acquisitions and mergers help it expand its operations. The company acquired more than 470 insurance intermediary operations in more than two decades. Recently, the company acquired Vandroff Insurance Agency to enhance service offering. While this move marks the first buyout in the ongoing quarter, the company completed six acquisitions in the last reported quarter.

Shares of Brown & Brown have rallied 14.6% year to date, outperforming the industry’s growth of 6.2%. We expect the company’s sustained operational performance, strategic buyouts, strong balance sheet as well as liquidity position to drive its shares higher in the near term.

 



Given the insurance industry’s all-time high available capital resource, mergers and acquisitions are raging the insurance space. Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc. (MMC - Free Report) recently announced that Marsh & McLennan Agency LLC (“MMA”), the middle market agency subsidiary of Marsh, has acquired Eustis Insurance & Benefits to expand in Louisiana. Unum Group (UNM - Free Report) has acquired Pramerica Zycie TUiR SA from a subsidiary of Prudential Financial, Inc. (PRU - Free Report) to leverage its solid agents and brokers’ network for growing its financial protection offering.

Zacks Rank

Currently, Brown & Brown carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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