Were you very busy with M&A transactions in October? Continuing on how Covid-19 is changing the landscape for M&A, below are Euclid Transactional’s stats through October on global R&W/W&I insurance submissions and policies bound for 2020. After a summer which the Financial Times described as “the busiest summer for M&A on record”, October was our busiest month ever. We bound 87 policies, over 30% more than in October 2019, and reviewed nearly 700 submissions, over 10% more than in October 2019.  Average deal sizes have ranged around $300 million to $450 million for the past 9 weeks, significantly higher than April through June where the range was typically around $150 million to $250 million and when Covid-19 prevented many larger deals from signing. October saw the aggregate cost of our US primary policies rise by over 25% compared to October 2019. We attribute this increase in rate to clients and brokers recognizing that Euclid and other established markets have paid hundreds of millions of dollars of claims over the last 12 months, and valuing insurers that have a proven track record for deal execution and fairly and efficiently paying claims.

Do these numbers line up with what you are seeing in the deal world and the quotes you are receiving for R&W insurance? Do you expect this high deal volume to continue after the election? Feel free to reach out to Euclid Transactional to discuss this data or anything else.