Date: 22 December 2021
B.P. Marsh & Partners Plc
(“B.P. Marsh”, “the Company” or “the Group”)
Investee Company Disposal – Walsingham Motor Insurance Limited
B.P. Marsh, the specialist investor in early-stage financial services businesses, is pleased to announce that on 21 December 2021 the Group sold its stake in investee company Walsingham Motor Insurance Limited (“WMIL”), a London-based Managing General Agency, which specialises in UK Courier and Taxi fleet motor insurance.
B.P. Marsh sold its 40.5% shareholding in WMIL for £4.6m in cash. As part of this transaction, the Group will receive a further £0.2m in cash from its 20% shareholding in Walsingham Holdings Ltd, resulting in total proceeds of £4.8m alongside the repayment of £0.3m in loans.
WMIL has been acquired by Humn.ai Limited (“Humn”), a London-based insurance provider producing real-time data-driven fleet insurance.
The Group initially invested £0.3m in WMIL in December 2013, with total equity investment to date of £0.6m. In addition, the Group provided £1.2m in loans which were subsequently fully repaid. The Group also invested in Walsingham Holdings Ltd in May 2018 and provided £0.3m in loans to enable it to acquire 11.7% in equity of WMIL from an exiting shareholder. Over the eight years following the initial investment, WMIL has grown its Gross Written Premium from start-up to over £26m.
In total, including the amounts receivable from both WMIL and Walsingham Holdings Ltd, this disposal represents a multiple of eight times the equity invested. This represents a 23% uplift over the valuation announced at 31st July 2021 of £3.9m, and an Internal Rate of Return of 22% (inclusive of all income and fees).
The disposal of WMIL is in keeping with B.P. Marsh's strategy of investing for the long term in start-up and early stage businesses with ambitious management teams. This allows the Company to work with management to help grow their business, before disposing of its stake at a beneficial time for both B.P. Marsh, management and the investee company itself.
CEO of WMIL, Garry Watson, commented:
“It has been a pleasure working with the B.P. Marsh team over the past years and their contribution and support has been invaluable in getting Walsingham to where we are today.”
Commenting on the disposal, the Group's Finance Director and Nominee Director on the Board of WMIL, Jon Newman, commented:
“It has been a pleasure to work with Garry Watson, Martin Gray and the whole team at WMIL over the past eight years and to see the business grow and flourish. The acquisition by Humn offers an exciting future for them, and we wish everyone at WMIL every success.
“The sale of our stake in WMIL at an IRR of 22% is another example of B.P. Marsh being able to identify niche opportunities to back successful management teams and to successfully realise value for our shareholders. This demonstrates the benefits of our investment process which has proven successful over a number of years.”