Tag: Warranty Market

In a late summer trip over the English Channel, James Fletcher and Mike Grant recently visited Paris following successful placements of both Primary and Excess policies, to deepen Devonshire’s engagement with brokers across the French market. Our aim was to reinforce Devonshire’s support for Warranty & Indemnity, Tax, and Contingency cover, and to take the temperature of the market in person.

France’s M&A landscape in 2024 showed a mix of resilience and shift. Total M&A transaction value in France rose to approximately €128 billion, a ~10% increase year-on-year despite political uncertainty including snap elections and a sovereign credit downgrade. While the overall number of M&A deals fell (for example, during the first nine months of 2024 there were about 1,739 deals, roughly 30% fewer than in the same period in 2023), the growth in value underlines that larger and more strategic deals continued to close. Private equity buy-outs in particular more than doubled in value during 2024 versus 2023.

In the financial services sector, too, M&A activity showed remarkable upticks. In Q3 2024, for example, French financial services saw 13 announced deals worth about US$6 billion, a sharp increase vs the prior quarter. Meanwhile, transactional risk insurance globally also had a near-record year: Marsh reported placing US$67.8 billion in transactional risk insurance limits in 2024 (up ~38% year-on-year), covering over 2,750 policies, with nearly 1,600 unique transactions.

During our Paris meetings, what came across clearly was that brokers and deal parties are more frequently expecting insurers to offer transactional risk cover as a standard part of deal structuring. W&I, tax and contingency provisions are increasingly seen as tools to facilitate deal closure, reduce negotiation friction, and manage exposures in high-value deals. The data supports this: as deal values increase, buyers and sellers are more inclined to offload or share risk via insurance rather than relying purely on contractual protections.

Regulatory, legal, and cultural factors in France mean that underwriters must demonstrate strong local knowledge, clarity in policy wording, and an ability to respond quickly. The size of deals matters, but equally important is that policies are crafted to match the depth of due diligence buyers conduct in France. That means contingent risk in particular (e.g. liabilities that arise post-closing because of warranties, tax or other risks) is high on the agenda for deal teams and brokers.

Devonshire is well positioned in this environment. Our ability to provide both Primary and Excess layer cover, combined with expertise in W&I, tax insurance, and contingency risk, allows us to respond to what brokers are increasingly asking for. Our visit to Paris reinforced that while competition is strong, there is also genuine opportunity for underwriters who can deliver precision, speed, clarity, and local understanding.

Looking ahead, the trends suggest further growth in transactional risk insurance in France through 2025. As large-cap deals continue to close, private equity activity persists, financing conditions ease somewhat, and deal parties become ever more experienced, demand for high-quality transactional risk cover is likely only to increase.

We left Paris confident. France remains a core market for Devonshire’s European offering, especially for structuring deals that need strong risk protection. 

Watch this space for more from Devonshire Goes Global, as we continue to build out our relationships, sharpen our propositions, and support deals across Europe with risk solutions that match the market’s growing sophistication.

Devonshire’s international transactional risk roadshow continues. Following on from the previous success of our visits to Mumbai and Stockholm, the Devonshire Goes Global series grand tour continued in early July, this time with a trip to a major insurance hub, Madrid. 

A team from Devonshire travelled to the Spanish capital to explore the transactional liability market and the broking landscape – an area that Devonshire has considerable experience and expertise in.

When Devonshire launched back in April 2024 its aim was to specialise in underwriting challenging transactional risks, and our expansion into the European market in June 2024 further cemented that ambition.

Devonshire has continued to see growth in the transactional liability market across Europe, the Spanish market for this line of business in particular has continued to flourish significantly and is experiencing a busy summer.

Upward trends

Transactional liability insurance is seeing an exponential uptick in Spain according to DAC Beachcroft – while these policies were involved in around 15% of Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) in 2014, during 2024 it surged to nearly 50% of M&A transactions.

Transactional liability insurance is now being used in the most significant M&A transactions, but also in those under €50,000,000. This is due to greater interest in the commercialisation of the product with insurers beginning to sell these policies as well as specialist agents. There has also been greater competition leading to a reduction in premiums, subsequently making this line more accessible.

Madrid as a region represents the core of Spain’s transactional liability insurance market driven by a robust M&A ecosystem, as well as a growing demand for Warranty and Indemnity (W&I) insurance and tax liability cover. In addition to this the maturing broking and underwriting infrastructure, increasing product availability and premium competitiveness.

On a global level the transactional risk insurance market rose sharply in 2024, Marsh placed $67.8bn of coverage across over 2,750 policies, up from 2023 which stood at 38%.

Meanwhile, claims rose by 30% that same year in Europe including Spain, with many insurers deploying capital to this one line.

Spain is mirroring this momentum by increasing its awareness in the value of and risk mitigation in M&A.

There are also a growing number of LatAm deals coming into the market via brokers in Spain, which Devonshire has a keen interest and experience in. .

On top of this more and more contingent risks are coming to the market including a number of permitting risks.

Lastly, real estate in the region is another area that Devonshire is seeing a considerable uptick in 2025. GlobalData reported that general insurance Gross Written Premium (GWP) reached €45.7bn in 2024, and is expected to rise to  €56.6bn by 2028, driven by property insurance.

Coupled with Madrid’s growing insurtech sector, technology continues to accelerate across the region with significant growth in software development, cybersecurity and data science. The Spanish government’s Digital Spain 2025 agenda is heavily invested in the tech sector with the intention to focus on digital transformation and creating jobs in Artificial Intelligence (AI), machine learning, cloud computing and DevOps.

Stay tuned for the next chapter in Devonshire Goes Global, as we continue to meet clients, forge connections, and grow our reach across the world’s most dynamic M&A markets.

Our Partner, James Dodd, features in the latest podcast by Insurance Post speaking about the evolution of the Warranty and Indemnity (W&I) market, alongside DAC Beechcroft’s Jack Holling, Markel’s Brian Dressler, and CFC’s Angus Marshall.

Speaking on why W&I insurance has reached record levels, James believes there’s been a huge increase in familiarity with the product, across lawyers, financial and tax professionals, and clients, whether they be private equity houses or trade clients. 

“And that’s from the perspective of both the brokers and insurers, but also the lawyers, financial, tax and other advisers. And I think people now understand a lot more about what insurers need to be able to provide good coverage. I think as the process has become more streamlined, that’s allowed the pricing and coverage to become very competitive, which has meant the product becomes more and more attractive.”

One of the reasons for W&I insurance reaching record levels is down to its evolution as a product, which James believes is down to its ability to cover a number of different industries and jurisdictions, including emerging markets such as Africa and South America.

“And as well as new industries, new jurisdictions, I think the product has evolved to cover different types of deals, for example secondaries and synthetic transactions.

“So it’s evolved to cover more and more industries, more and more jurisdictions, and then those different types of deals as well.”

To listen to the full 20-minute podcast episode, click here.