Fortegra Completes Acquisition of Bliss & Glennon from Willis HRH

Jacksonville, FL- Fortegra Financial Corporation, a leading insurance services company specializing in affinity marketing, payment protection, mass marketing and administration, today announced that it completed the acquisition of Bliss & Glennon, Inc., from Willis HRH, Inc. Fortegra Financial is a portfolio company of Summit Partners, a global growth equity investor. The financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Bliss & Glennon is engaged in the business of transaction-based wholesale insurance brokerage and is a surplus lines general insurance agency with binding authority. The completion of this transaction positions Fortegra Financial to continue expanding its insurance distribution and service business to include wholesale brokerage.

Fortegra's President and CEO Richard S. Kahlbaugh observed, “Since recapitalizing our company with Summit Partners, we have continued to assess the strength of our platform and looked for strategic opportunities to complement the very unique nature of our product delivery systems. We are thrilled to be joining forces with the outstanding team at Bliss & Glennon. This acquisition accelerates our effort to expand our distribution platform and capabilities. In the future, we will continue to focus on our distribution and administration business, and look to expand our presence by entering new geographic markets and product segments.”

We have been very pleased with Fortegra’s strong growth since the time of our original investment in 2007,” said J.J. Kardwell, a Principal with Summit Partners, who is also a member of Fortegra’s Board of Directors. “We welcome this opportunity to help finance Fortegra’s continued expansion, and we will continue working with the Fortegra management team to identify similarly compelling acquisition opportunities.”

Bliss & Glennon is a perfect fit with Fortegra and we look forward to working with them as a third-party wholesale insurance broker,” said Joe Plumeri, Chairman and CEO, Willis Group Holdings. “We decided to look for a new home for Bliss and Glennon because it did not fit with our long-term strategy to focus our attention and resources on our retail brokerage business in the U.S.”

Piper Jaffray acted as the exclusive financial advisor to Fortegra Financial and Summit Partners. StoneRidge Advisors and Willis Capital Markets and Advisory Services acted as financial advisors to Willis HRH.