Airbus falls out of Gallagher remedy package deal as Piiq wins tender

Airbus is the largest manufacturers' account in the marketplace, with an annual premium of around $140mn, although some of this is placed with insurers on a direct basis.

The account had been earmarked to be sold to AJ Gallagher as part of the manufacturers' liability and space business, which is being sold to the Illinois-headquartered broker to satisfy European competition authorities. The aerospace and defence company put the account, previously handled by Willis, up for tender earlier this year, inviting Piiq and McGill and Partners to pitch alongside its existing broker.

Sources said Willis' French operation, which is being sold to Gallagher, will continue to perform some local servicing of the account. Piiq's win of such a significant account is an interesting coda to the back-and-forth between Aon/Willis and the European Commission, given the latter's insistence that true competition for large clients required scale.

The start-up aerospace broker, which is owned by recently sold parent Corant Global, has notched up a series of wins since it launched in September 2019. These include Rolls-Royce – previously a cornerstone account of Marsh's aerospace book, French firm Dassault and Brazilian manufacturer Embraer.

Piiq is led by former Willis executive Philip Smaje and former Marsh executive Marcel Chad. The Airbus account is well regarded in the market and has been relatively profitable bar a $390mn loss, which was settled in 2018, over the grounding of faulty helicopters in 2016.

Aerospace and defence company Airbus had 2020 revenue of about EUR49.9bn ($59.7bn) and has a market value of more than EUR84bn. The parties were contacted for comment.

Source: Insurance Insider

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