LONDON: B.P. Marsh and Partners Plc (AIM:BPM), the specialist private equity investor in early stage financial services businesses, it has acquired a 30% Cumulative Preferred Ordinary shareholding in Ai Marine Risk Limited, a London-based Managing General Agency (MGA).

B.P. Marsh has agreed to provide up to £1.6m of funding via a mixture of equity and a loan facility, which will be partially drawn down upon completion. As part of this transaction, Abi Benson, an Investment Director and Executive Director of B.P. Marsh & Company Ltd, will be the nominee Non-Executive Director on the Board of Ai Marine.

Ai Marine specialises in Marine Hull insurance and will underwrite a global portfolio of business with a strong focus on the UK & Europe, Middle East and Asia-Pacific regions, and has been established by Tom Fulford-Smith and Charles D’Alton.

With the support of B.P. Marsh, Ai Marine’s Management intends to build a market-leading, client-centric marine MGA. The business is headquartered in London, with a distribution centre in Scandinavia, with the aim to deliver risk solutions to a global portfolio of marine clients.

Ai Marine has secured A-rated capacity from a number of carriers, with the delivery of long-term profitability and sustainability for its insurer/reinsurer partners being a central part of Ai Marine’s business plan.

The Co-founders, Tom Fulford-Smith and Charles D’Alton are experienced marine insurance specialists with a track record of delivering growth. Tom started his career in 2001 as a marine insurance broker at Willis before heading to Hong Kong to join FP Marine in 2007.

He was appointed Head of Marine for Cooper Gay Hong Kong in 2011. Charles started his career in 2006 as a shipbroker at Maersk Broker before joining the Standard Club in 2009 where he was made Underwriting Director for the Club’s Asia Pacific syndicate. In 2014, Tom and Charles founded Latitude Brokers Limited, a marine insurance brokerage with offices in Hong Kong and Singapore which they led for 8 years.

Following the sale of Latitude to Filhet Allard Maritime (Bordeaux), Tom and Charles left the company to establish Ai Marine where they will draw on their strong networks within the global ship-owning and insurance broking communities to drive profitable growth.

Jonny Moss joins Ai Marine as Chief Underwriting Officer, having most recently held the position of Senior Underwriter at Norwegian Hull Club’s London office. A Naval Architect by training, Jonny started in the marine insurance sector with XL Catlin in 2016 having previously worked for five years in the maritime defence sector on the design and consultancy of submarines and warships.

Dan Topping, Chief Investment Officer of the Company, commenting on this investment, stated: “We are very pleased to be making this investment in Ai Marine and are looking forward to working with Tom and Charles, to enable Ai Marine to deliver substantial growth and robust results over the coming years.”

Charles D’Alton and Tom Fulford-Smith, Co-founders of Ai Marine, commented: “We are excited to enter into this partnership with B.P. Marsh. They are a strong team with a proven record of sound investments and sustainable strategic partnerships.

With their support, we look forward to achieving our long-term goals”.

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