Davies, the leading specialist professional services and technology business, serving insurance and highly regulated markets, today announced that it has signed a purchase agreement to acquire Merlinos & Associates Inc. (“Merlinos”), the Georgia, US based insurance-focused actuarial consulting business. Merlinos provides a range of compliance, risk management, and wider actuarial consulting solutions to the property & casualty and life & health insurance markets in the US.
Operating throughout the US, the addition of Merlinos strengthens Davies’ insurance services offering globally, expanding its existing actuarial expertise. Merlinos will form part of Davies’ global insurance services business led by CEO Steven Crabb. Merlinos’ current management will continue to lead the day-to-day operations and will report to Davies’ Insurance Services US CEO Robert Dewen. All 50 Merlinos employees will continue in their roles within Davies.
In recent years Davies has diversified and deepened its global insurance services capability to provide: audit, subrogation management and insurance focused actuarial consulting for its 1,000+ insurance and highly regulated clients, alongside its existing insurance management solutions for captives, MGAs and brokers. In September Davies announced it had signed a deal to acquire Asta, the leading provider of insurance management solutions to Lloyd’s Syndicates. A month later, Davies expanded its underwriting support capabilities in North America through the acquisition of IRS, the property & casualty insurance inspection firm that provides a range of tech-enabled residential and commercial inspections to support underwriting decision-making.
In March 2021 Davies announced that BC Partners had signed a definitive deal to take a majority stake in the business, to support Davies next phase of international expansion and continued digital transformation. The BC deal closed early in August, following receipt of regulatory approvals.
Globally Davies’ 5,000 colleagues operate across Bermuda, Canada, India, Ireland, Spain, Switzerland the UK and US. The business delivers professional services and technology solutions across the risk and insurance value chain, including excellence in claims, underwriting, distribution, regulation, customer experience, human capital, digital transformation & change management.
Dan Saulter, Group CEO of Davies commented: “We are excited to welcome the whole Merlinos team to Davies. The business is a fantastic fit for us, bringing a wealth of experience serving the insurance market with a diverse outlook and international client base of insurers, public entities, captives and self-insured entities.”
He added: “The expansion of our operations across North America with additional and new high value services capability continues to be an important strategy for Davies. The addition of Merlinos significantly enhances our existing actuarial services capability and will accelerate growth in this high value service space.”
Paul Merlino, President of Merlinos added: “We are delighted to be joining forces with Davies and to contribute to the success of its growth strategy in North America. We look forward to working with the wider Davies team to continue our client centric focus and offer expanded insurance services and related state of the art technology investments from the broader Davies group. Our employees will continue to be our most valuable asset and will have great and expanded opportunities for their personal development and career progression.”