Schroder British Opportunities buys global insurance business as it boosts private equity exposure – Schroder British Opportunities (SBO) has bought CFC, a leading technology-driven global insurance business. The investment has been made via VIP SIV I LP, a fund managed by Vitruvian Partners.
Founded in 1999, CFC was one of the pioneers in the cyber insurance market. Today, it is a technology-driven business that has established itself as a global leader in cyber and provider of cover for a diverse range of emerging risks that sit at the intersection of technology and business. CFC writes 50 products across 20 different classes of specialist insurance focused primarily on SME businesses.
This investment is in line with SBO’s focus on backing high-quality, high growth businesses, with opportunities for significant further expansion and a strong alignment between shareholder value and fundamental positive purpose in society. The investment is consistent with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 8 “Decent Work and Economic Growth”, specifically targeting 8.10 “Strengthen the capacity of domestic financial institutions to encourage and expand access to banking, insurance and financial services for all” with its focus on a range of emerging risk categories.
Tim Creed, head of private equity at Schroders, said: “We are delighted to announce SBO’s eighth private equity investment. CFC is a high quality business with an outstanding reputation that we have known for several years through our relationship with Vitruvian. CFC’s focus on supporting its customers in emerging risk areas, while pioneering technology to enable it to deliver at increasing scale, has underpinned an envious track record of growth and profitability that places it in the upper echelons of insurance companies globally”.
This investment increases SBO’s private equity share to close to 50%. This deployment rate is in line with the schedule announced at the time of the IPO. One further private equity investment is anticipated and will be announced in due course.
SBO : Schroder British Opportunities buys global insurance business as it boosts private equity exposure