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Huron Capital’s High Street Insurance Partners Acquires Ottawa Kent Insurance Agency
DETROIT (Sept. 11, 2019) — Leading lower-middle-market private equity firm Huron Capital announced today that High Street Insurance Partners (“High Street”), its ExecFactor® full-service insurance brokerage platform, acquired Ottawa Kent Insurance Agency (Ottawa Kent), an outsourced risk management and independent insurance agency with four offices in West Michigan. This acquisition marks High Street’s sixth deal since it was founded in June of 2018.
As one of the largest agencies in the Grand Rapids market, Ottawa Kent has operated for more than 40 years, providing insurance solutions to more than 10,000 customers, with offices in Jenison, Sparta, Holland and Byron Center.
“Ottawa Kent has a large and diverse base of customers across a number of industries including maintenance services, manufacturing and business services, and also has relationships with many leading insurance companies,” said Scott Wick, Managing Partner and Chief Executive Officer of High Street. “We believe this wide range of customers and markets, along with a talented and experienced staff, makes Ottawa Kent a strong addition to the High Street family.”
High Street plans for all Ottawa Kent principals to remain active members of the business and retain their current positions, which is expected to help ensure that existing customers continue to receive expected and expanded services.
“We are confident that High Street is the right partner to position the combined company for future growth,” said Mike Haverdink, President of Ottawa Kent. “We believe this is the right decision at the right time for our customers and 64 employees, and we are pleased that the existing partners will have an opportunity to be a part of one of the fastest growing insurance brokerages in the Midwest.”
High Street is one of 15 ExecFactor® initiatives created by Huron Capital, a leading lower-middle-market private equity firm. ExecFactor® seeks to combine a CEO’s industry expertise with Huron Capital’s extensive investment experience and committed capital. These resources, tools and expertise are aimed to help Ottawa Kent grow and achieve its financial and business goals.
“Ottawa Kent’s principals have established an impressive network in the insurance industry in Michigan and beyond, providing High Street with even more industry expertise and a deeper bench of resources,” said Matt Hare, Partner at Huron Capital. “We look forward to working with the Ottawa Kent team to build on its previous successes and create even more.”
About Huron Capital
Based in Detroit, Huron Capital is an operationally focused private equity firm with a long history of growing lower middle-market companies through our proprietary ExecFactor® and buy-and-build investment models. We prefer complex situations where we believe we can help companies reach their full potential by combining our operational and strategic resources, substantial capital base, and transaction experience with seasoned operating executives. Over the past two decades, Huron Capital has successfully established six investment funds totaling approximately $1.8 billion in capital and has completed over 175 transactions throughout North America. Huron Capital portfolio companies have had aggregate annual revenues exceeding $3.0 billion, 15,000 employees and operated over 325 facilities. Huron Capital targets both control and non-control equity stakes in fundamentally sound companies that the firm believes can benefit from its operational approach to creating value. These transactions typically take the form of equity recapitalizations, family succession transactions, market-entry strategies, corporate carve-outs, and management buyouts of companies having revenues up to $200 million. Huron Capital’s sector focus includes business services, consumer products & services and specialty industrials. For more information, please visit: www.huroncapital.com.
About High Street Insurance Partners
Headquartered in Traverse City, Michigan, High Street Insurance Partners provides commercial property & casualty insurance, employee benefits services and personal lines to a wide range of industries. High Street Insurance Partners distinguishes itself through the specialization of its practice groups, leveraging the collective expertise of its partners to provide tailored solutions to its clients. Aligning industry expertise with insurance products and services expertise, it significantly enhances the customer experience and provides agency partners the opportunity to grow and expand with their customer base. For more information, please visit: www.highstreetpartners.com.
Certain information herein may contain forward-looking statements which are provided to assist the reader in understanding the beliefs and opinions with respect to future opportunities as perceived by Huron Capital and others quoted herein. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and undue reliance should not be placed on them. Such forward-looking statements necessarily involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, which may cause actual performance in future periods to differ materially from any projections or results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. The issuer of these statements undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements if circumstances or estimates or opinions should change except as may be required by applicable securities laws.
