The land grab continues apace. Last week, Aston Lark, which has been snapping up Irish insurance and financial brokerages at breakneck speed was at it again, acquiring Dublin-based Finance Solutions in a deal worth in the region of €10 million.

Founded by Ken Murray in 2011, Finance Solutions has more than 7,000 clients and employs 40 people. Like 13 other insurance brokers and advisers before it, it will now be rolled into the wider Aston Lark group.

Aston Lark is one of a small number of big companies with significant ambitions in the Irish market. I have written before about the influx of private equity into the sector, and examined the business model of Árachas, another significant consolidator in the industry.

The likes of Aston Lark and Árachas are betting on their ability to drive down costs through efficiencies of scale (such as cutting better deals with insurers) while increasing market share.

And they are playing in a sector that is ripe for consolidation. There are in the region of 125 locally-owned brokers around the country with a turnover exceeding €500,000. Aston Lark has stated publicly that within five years, there will be in the region of just ten dominant players. Those who are not consolidated will probably be competing in niche markets.

Many of those running independent brokerages are also advancing in years. Selling up offers an excellent exit route. The demographic issue was something highlighted by Aston Lark’s Robert Kennedy in an interview with Ian last year, when he said:

“If I was to invite you at any industry event, the average age of many of the principals in many of the brokerages in Ireland would be 55 to 70 – probably closer to 70 than 55. After the crash in 2007, there was virtually no succession planning because anyone who had children who might have had an inkling to go into the business was dissuaded from doing so.”

Plus, valuations are high, and the expectation from those doing the consolidating is that they will get higher. The consolidators are paying in the region of eight times Ebitda, and sometimes much more, high enough to turn heads and to dissuade employees at the brokers from making their own bid.

However, if you can create the right synergies, the expectation is that the firms can flip on the enlarged entity down the line for between 12 and 15 times Ebitda.

International linkages are important; Aston Lark said Finance Solutions will complement SPF Private Clients, a major independent mortgage broker in the UK that it acquired earlier this year.

“Whilst Finance Solutions will sit within the Howden Ireland structure, they will work closely with SPF to develop their offering,” the company said.

(Unlike most of its competitors, Aston Lark is not owned by private equity but by British firm Howden, who acquired it in late 2021 from Goldman Sachs Asset Management and Bowmark Capital.)

In theory, the model is simple: consolidate, drive up profits while driving down costs through efficiencies and synergies, and then flip it on down the road. 

As I wrote before: “The forces pushing brokers together into big groups are getting stronger than the forces keeping them small. The industry is consolidating for the same reasons most industries consolidate: because a big broker is more profitable than a small one.”

But how is it working in practice?

Aston Lark has just filed accounts for its Irish operation. There are some caveats. First, the firm has changed its accounting period, so we are comparing the full-year numbers for 2021 with a nine-month period in 2022 – from the start of January to the end of September.

Plus, crucially, the numbers do not take into account all of its acquisitions. The company has been working at integrating its businesses into one main trading company; indeed last month, it transferred the trade and assets of several businesses into a company called Aston Lark Europe, including AR Brassington & Co, Veritan Consultants and Principal Insurance Ireland

However, the numbers give a significant insight into how a consolidator in the sector can benefit from trimming administration costs while growing revenues.


Turnover was slightly over €14 million for the nine-month period, more than for the entire period in 2021. Some €11.5 million was generated in the Republic, with the rest coming from the UK. On an annualised basis, this would push revenues for 2022 to around €18.6 million.

As I said, this is not the full scale of its activities in Ireland – Robert Kennedy told Ian last year that it had revenues of around €30 million and growing. But it still shows solid revenue growth for what is disclosed on a like-for-like annualised basis.


The real bounce came in relation to its administration costs. Again, the figures for 2022 are truncated, and we must add in a full quarter of costs to make it fully comparable. But it still highlights how a group can benefit from scale.


To highlight that point, the cost adjustments came despite headcount rising from 99 to 137. It had a pretty considerable impact on the bottom line.


On revenues of €13.5 million in 2021, the company had a pre-tax profit of €750,000. With revenues of €14 million for the first nine months of 2022, it recorded a hefty profit of €4.2 million. 

According to the company: “The directors consider that both the level of business and the period-end financial position were in line with expectations and expect that the current level of activity will be increased and are confident that this will enable the company to continue to trade successfully for the foreseeable future.”

We are still at the beginning of the great consolidation of the sector in Ireland. There will be winners and there will be losers.

Insurers will arguably be losers as they become less able to use their clout to cut deals with small independent brokers. Bigger brokers will be able to negotiate better commissions. If this cost is passed on to consumers through higher premiums, consumers could be among the losers also.