Vista closes $4.6bn sale of Apptio to IBM; Brookfield and Braemont invest in insurance

Good morning dealmakers, thank goodness it’s Friday!

It’s Obey Martin Manayiti here with the Wire.

Today we are capping off the week with a look at six private equity-backed insurance deals that show growing momentum of dealflow in the sector.

We’ll also take a look at a couple of recent deals, including the completion of Vista’s $4.6 billion sale of Apptio to IBM; and Northleaf’s $200 million investment in Tillman FiberCo.

Let’s start with the insurance industry.

Deal value up
Deal activity in the insurance sector has been relatively strong, noted PwC in its mid-year outlook. While the volume of deals was down in recent months, total deal value was up.

For the six-month period from mid-November 2022 to mid-May 2023, PwC recorded 194 announced transactions representing over $7 billion in deal value, compared with 263 announced transactions and $2 billion in deal value in the previous six-month period.

Activity is expected to continue. “Despite uncertainty around interest rates and the US economic environment, we expect insurance deal activity to remain very active through the remainder of the year,” noted Mark Friedman, PwC Insurance deals leader, in its report. “We are seeing increased demand by private equity buyers seeking to acquire insurance brokerages, managing general agencies and blocks of life and annuity businesses.”

Listicle
PE Hub has seen a steady flow of deals in the sector.

I rounded up six North America-focused insurance PE deals that were announced between June and August.

Here are highlights of two of the deals:

In July, Brookfield Reinsurance, an affiliate of Brookfield Asset Management, agreed to acquire American Equity Investment Life Holding Company (AEL), a West Des Moines, Iowa-based life insurance business for $4.3 billion. The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2024.

“This transaction represents an important step in the continued growth of our insurance business, further diversifying and scaling our insurance capabilities, and is a direct result of the partnership we have developed with AEL since our initial investment in 2020,” said Sachin Shah, CEO of Brookfield Reinsurance, in a statement.

In June Dallas based Braemont Capital invested $125 million in Incline P&C Group, an Austin-based insurance program market services firm.

Incline’s current programs include private passenger auto, cargo, commercial auto, flood, homeowners, motorcycle, pet and workers’ compensation insurance.

“The company has experienced incredible growth in premium volume and program acquisition and through this investment, we are excited to join Incline on their mission to continue to be the premier insurance program market services firm,” said Robert Covington, managing partner of Braemont.

Done deal
Vista Equity Partners has completed the sale of Apptio, a provider of software that aims to help companies manage their IT costs, to IBM in a $4.6 billion deal.

Vista bought Bellevue, Washington-based Apptio for $1.94 billion in 2019 and partnered with its CEO and co-founder Sunny Gupta to expand and diversify from a single product to a comprehensive IT financial planning platform.

Through a combination of organic and inorganic growth levers executed during Vista’s ownership – including five acquisitions – Apptio’s total revenue doubled, its EBITDA margins increased by more than 4x and its customer base grew by more than 3.3x, Vista said.

Separately, Vista announced this week that the Austin-based firm has surpassed $100 billion in AUM.

Building broadband
Northleaf Capital Partners is making an initial investment of $200 million in Tillman FiberCo, a broadband network builder and operator.

Northleaf can invest up to $300 million more as New York-based Tillman scales its operations, according to the press release.

Northleaf’s investment is expected to enable Tillman to accelerate its adoption of new technology.

That’s it for me today.

I’d love to hear from you at obey.m@pei.group.

And MK Flynn will be back with the newsletter on Monday.

Have a nice weekend.

Cheers,
Obey