OAMPS Insurance Brokers will complete its fifth acquisition in Western Australia in three years when it absorbs local firm AD Irvine Insurance Brokers.
OAMPS Insurance Brokers will complete its fifth acquisition in Western Australia in three years when it absorbs local firm AD Irvine Insurance Brokers.
State director Max Bailey said Cottesloe-based AD Irvine’s staff would move into OAMPS’s Burswood premises on August 1.
The group has also established a corporate division in WA, led by former Jardine Lloyd Thompson executive Peter Gibbs.
The group will have a total of 43 staff in WA, in offices in Perth, Albany and Broome, including 24 insurance brokers.
This makes OAMPS the fifth largest insurance broker in Western Australia, according to WA Business News’ Book of Lists 2003.
The biggest insurance brokers in WA are three international firms – AON Risk Services, Jardine Lloyd Thompson and Marsh – followed by Australian firm Elkington Bishop Molineaux. (See page 31 for the full list.)
OAMPS’s WA acquisitions have included Mr Bailey’s former firm, Westside Insurance Brokers, as well as Savell Insurance Brokers, Austwide Insurance Brokers and Lindsay Martin & Associates.
These acquisitions are part of OAMPS’s national growth strategy, during which the group has acquired 23 insurance broking portfolios and one financial services business in the past year.
Mr Bailey said OAMPS was continuing to seek further acquisition opportunities in WA, and they normally would be larger than AD Irvine, which has just two staff.
In some cases, the vendors saw the sale of their business to OAMPS as an exit strategy or retirement strategy.
Mr Bailey said smaller operators were also attracted to being part of a larger, national Australian Stock Exchange listed company.
“Much of it is driven by legislative change, “ Mr Bailey said.
“We can take care of their training needs and the new Financial Services Reform Act regime a lot more easily.”
OAMPS corporate division, which has three account executives based in South Perth, has been established to service larger companies.
The group has recently established corporate divisions in Sydney and Melbourne and is planning similar moves in other States.
Mr Bailey said OAMPS had also appointed two financial planning staff in its Burswood office.
