Health insurance firm acquires division of West Country tech company - Business Live

The broking division of a HR tech firm near Bristol has been acquired by a growing health insurance group for an undisclosed sum.

Amba Care and Wellbeing (Amba C&W), part of the Amba People Group, provides its clients with an employee benefits platform designed to help firms attract and retain Gen Z and millennial talent by offering perks such as net zero pensions, electric cars and on-demand counselling.

Based at Briarlands Office Park in Rudgeway, South Gloucestershire, Amba C&W distributes benefits including healthcare insurance, as well as group life and group income protection, to corporate clients.

The business and its assets have been bought by Northamptonshire-based Premier Choice Healthcare (PCH), a subsidiary of insurance broker Global Risk Partners (GRP).

As part of the agreement Amba C&W’s staff will continue to be based in its Rudgeway base and will transfer to PCH. Team leader Paul Dunsford will remain to oversee the business as a divisional head within PCH, reporting to Darren Perkins, PCH sales director.

Tobin Murphy-Coles, chief executive of Amba People Group, said the sale would allow the organisation to focus on the development of its employee engagement software Lumina, for which he said PCH would become a “key distribution partner.”

Mr Murphy-Coles said: “PCH is the right home for our people at Amba C&W and I’m confident Stephen Hough and his team will be excellent custodians for the business. Amba C&W has a bright future under PCH and the wider GRP umbrella.”

The deal, which does not require regulatory approval, is the third for PCH since the business was acquired by GRP in June 2020.

Stephen Hough, PCH’s managing director, said it was an “excellent opportunity” to buy the assets of a “high-quality business.”

Mr Hough said: “Our brief at PCH has been to mirror GRP’s acquisition strategy in UK retail commercial broking, at the same time delivering organic growth for our healthcare proposition through GRP’s retail broking portfolio.

“We remain keen on making further acquisitions where broking businesses fit our deal criteria and are on the look-out for vendors seeking to crystallise value from their life’s work, or who want to be part of a fast growth, entrepreneurial business.”

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