Bridgepoint acquires majority stake in insurance broker HBC

Hamburg — The Hansea­tic Broking Center Group (HBC), an owner-mana­­ged plat­form for insu­rance brokers, welco­mes Bridge­point as a new share­hol­der. The globally active inves­tor with head­quar­ters in London is taking over the shares from Preser­va­tion Capi­tal Part­ners. The foun­ders and the manage­ment team will remain signi­fi­cantly inves­ted and will lead HBC into the next growth phase toge­ther with Bridgepoint. 

Since its foun­da­tion in 2022, HBC has estab­lished itself as one of the leading inde­pen­dent insu­rance broker groups in the German-spea­king region. The company serves over 40,000 custo­mers in a variety of diffe­rent insu­rance sectors, mana­ges a premium volume of more than 600 million euros and has quadru­pled its EBITDA since it was foun­ded — through orga­nic growth and targe­ted acquisitions. 

“Our vision was clear from the start: we want to create a plat­form that offers SMEs access to specia­li­zed, inde­pen­dent advice and modern digi­tal solu­ti­ons — close to the custo­mer, profes­sio­nally strong and entre­pre­neu­rial,” explains Gert Schloss­ma­cher, Execu­tive Chair­man and co-foun­­der of HBC. “Bridge­point brings not only a deep under­stan­ding of our market, but also the opera­tio­nal expe­ri­ence to realize our ambi­ti­ons at scale. Toge­ther we will acce­le­rate our growth stra­tegy and further deve­lop an attrac­tive ecosys­tem for custo­mers, part­ners and insu­r­ers. We thank PCP for buil­ding HBC toge­ther over the past three years” 

With the new part­ner­ship, HBC will conti­nue to drive forward the expan­sion of its MGA exper­tise, the digi­ta­liza­tion of its plat­form and its expan­sion in the DACH region. Recent acqui­si­ti­ons such as LTA (travel insu­rance), HYV Schoma­cker (yacht insu­rance) and Schin­ner (commer­cial property insu­rance) under­line HBC’s stra­te­gic ambi­tion to streng­then its posi­tion in line with the needs of its custo­mer groups. 

“We believe in the value of inde­pen­dent, specia­li­zed consul­ting — espe­ci­ally for medium-sized compa­nies that are often under­re­pre­sen­ted in the market,” says Hauke Martin­sen, CEO and co-foun­­der of HBC. “With Bridge­point, we have a part­ner at our side who not only faci­li­ta­tes growth finan­ci­ally, but also supports it with stra­te­gic exper­tise. This bene­fits not only us — but above all our custo­mers and partners.” 

Cars­ten Kratz, Part­ner at Bridge­point and Head of DACH, is deligh­ted: “SMEs form the back­bone of the German economy — but are clearly under­ser­ved when it comes to custo­mi­zed insu­rance solu­ti­ons. HBC impres­ses with its entre­pre­neu­rial team, clear specia­liza­tion and impres­sive growth. We see enorm­ous poten­tial to support the company in further expan­ding its exper­tise, digi­ta­liza­tion and regio­nal expansion.”

Chris Brack­mann, Part­ner at Bridge­point, respon­si­ble for DACH invest­ments, adds: “HBC is an outstan­ding company in a struc­tu­rally attrac­tive market: foun­­der-led, fast-growing and with a clear track record. The condi­ti­ons for buil­ding a true cham­pion in the DACH region could hardly be better. We look forward to working with Gert, Hauke, Sebas­tian, Johan­nes and the team to make this vision a reality.”

It was a plea­sure to accom­pany Gert and his team during the start-up phase of HBC. In just three years, they have succee­ded in estab­li­shing one of the most dyna­mic and fastest-growing plat­forms in the Euro­pean insu­rance distri­bu­tion market. Our goal from the outset was to support the team in buil­ding a first-class plat­form for insu­rance distri­bu­tion. We are proud of what we have achie­ved toge­ther and look forward to watching HBC’s contin­ued progress under Bridge­poin­t’s leader­ship,” said Jeroen Bischops and Armin Holei­sen of Preser­va­tion Capi­tal Partners.

The tran­sac­tion is subject to the usual regu­la­tory appr­ovals and is expec­ted to be comple­ted in the third quar­ter of 2025.

About HBC

Hansea­tic Broking Center (HBC) is a dyna­mi­cally growing, owner-mana­­ged plat­form for insu­rance brokers and under­wri­ting agents based in Hamburg. Crea­ted in 2022 through the merger of seve­ral estab­lished specia­list brokers, HBC now serves over 40,000 custo­mers in 15 insu­rance sectors and mana­ges a premium volume of more than 600 million euros. The group combi­nes regio­nal custo­mer proxi­mity and profes­sio­nal specia­liza­tion with scalable struc­tures and digi­tal solu­ti­ons — tail­o­red to the requi­re­ments of medium-sized companies. 

About Bridge­point

Bridge­point is one of the worl­d’s leading private asset inves­tors with a focus on high-growth mid-market compa­nies in the private equity, infra­struc­ture and private credit sectors. With over $75 billion in assets under manage­ment and a strong local presence in Europe, North America and Asia, Bridge­point combi­nes global invest­ment power with deep market know­ledge and indus­try exper­tise. — www.bridgepointgroup.com

About Preser­va­tion Capi­tal Partners

Preser­va­tion Capi­tal Part­ners (PCP) is a private equity firm specia­li­zing in the busi­ness and finan­cial services sector with a focus on growth invest­ments in Western Europe. Foun­ded in 2017, PCP invests in market-leading compa­nies and has exten­sive expe­ri­ence in insu­rance distri­bu­tion, inclu­ding invest­ments in BMS, BPL and Optio. — www.preservationcapitalpartners.com

Advi­sor Bridge­point: Kirk­land & Ellis, Frankfurt

Sebas­tian Pitz (lead), Dr. Tobias Larisch (both Private Equity/M&A), Tim Nobe­reit (Tax, Munich), Dr. Alex­an­der Längs­feld (Debt Finance, Munich); Asso­cia­tes: Alex­an­der Herzog, Dr. Mattias Prange, Jenia Dimit­rova, Melissa Afraz, Fabian Water­höl­ter (all Private Equity/M&A; all three Munich)
Kirk­land & Ellis, London: Vanessa Xu, Alex­an­der Bond (both Debt Finance); Asso­ciate: Emma Shi (Debt Finance)

— www.kirkland.com