Hyperion, RK Harrison finalise merger

Insurance brokers Hyperion and RK Harrison have finalised their merger, four months after the negotiations were revealed but almost five years since the pair first talked about combining.

The deal, which creates a firm with GBP400 million of annual revenues, is the latest merger in a wave of consolidation sweeping the London insurance market that has already seen deals for Catlin, Brit and the retail insurance giants Aviva and Friends Life in recent months.

David Howden, who founded Hyperion in 1994, said the firm will be the world’s largest employee-owned insurance business, with about 600 of the 3,000 staff holding 70 percent of its shares.

“People obviously approached RKH; they’re a very successful business,” he told The Telegraph. “They did have people asking ‘why don’t you come and do a quick deal with us’, but the strategic rationale of it was so strong there was never any doubt about either of us going off.”

For Hyperion and RK Harrison, the new board will examine which of the two firms' brands to use around the world. “We have always said the same thing, and I almost wish I hadn’t said it, but we believe that eventually the right place for this company is on the public markets,” he said. “I’m here to create a business that’s here for the next 20, 30, 40, 50 years. I think that the right capital base to do that is the capital markets.