Inflexion makes minority investment in Granite Underwriting

The business will continue to be run by the existing management team led by founding shareholders Alan Keating and Martin Gowing.

The investment is being made by Partnership Capital Fund I, Inflexion's maiden minority investing fund. The vehicle closed on £400m in 2014 and seeks minority stakes in UK mid-market businesses.

Inflexion raised a successor to the fund last year, closing the Partnership II fund on £1bn. That vehicle is yet to start investing, with Inflexion instead deploying Partnership I at pace: Granite is the fourth investment made by the fund in the past 12 months.

Inflexion was not available for comment at the time of writing.

Company
Founded in 1982 and based in Liverpool, Granite distributes specialist motor insurance under a number of different brands. It serves drivers of private-hire taxis, black cabs, Uber and other operators in the sector. It also provides specialist cover for private car and light commercial vehicles.

Granite covers the whole insurance chain, including distribution, underwriting, claims handling, premium finance, investment management and vehicle hire.

According to public records, Granite posted a £53m turnover in 2017 with operating profit of £25m. This marked a sharp rise from 2016's £32m and £12m, respectively. Unquote understands that revenues now amount to £100m.

People
Inflexion Private Equity - John Harper (partner), Henry Arundel (assistant director), Andreas Constantinides (investment executive).

Advisers
Equity – Fenchurch Advisory Partners (M&A).
Vendors – KBW (M&A).

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• Topics
• Buyouts
• UK / Ireland
• Financials
• Inflexion Private Equity
• United Kingdom
• Minority investing