France-based insurance company April has acquired Benecaid Health Benefits Solutions Inc.
The acquisition will allow the Lyon, France-based company to expand and diversify the Canadian side of its business beyond property and casualty insurance, according to a press release. April has been active in the Canadian property and casualty insurance market for more than 10 years, the press release noted.
“By acquiring Benecaid, the group is continuing its expansion in a growing and priority business line for April,” said Emmanuel Morandini, chief executive officer of April.
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“Canada is already one of the main contributing countries to our gross margin outside France; we are boosting our positioning there thanks to a profitable company recognized for the quality of its expertise and which complements our existing activities. This transaction is fully in line with our sustainable growth strategy, combining a local foothold in health insurance with the global expansion of our expertise.”
The deal gives April a 93 per cent equity interest in Benecaid, with the remaining seven per cent held by the Canadian company’s management team. Toronto-based Benecaid has 53 employees serving more than 22,000 customers, the press release noted. As for April, it operates in 31 countries and has 3,800 employees.
Peter Berczi, president and chief executive officer of Benecaid, says the company was also looking to grow across Canada. “We thought it was time. The company is growing nicely, and we wanted to take it to the next level and wanted to do so with a large, ideally international, insurance entity — someone with a lot of experience in growing wholesale brokerage,” he says.
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“So they were a great fit for us. It’s really like a recapitalization for Benecaid. Management are still owners in the company, and we just have new partners now.”
According to Berczi, Benecaid will continue to operate as an independent entity. Currently, April Canada is a property and casualty wholesale brokerage, says Berczi.
“While April Group is active in the health space, April Canada is not,” he says.
“So we’ll obviously look for ways that we can work together, but they’re really two independent, cousin-like businesses in Canada,” he adds.