Hotbed exits Home and Legacy

Hotbed, the UK private investor network, has sold Home and Legacy, a British specialist insurance underwriting agent, to Allianz-Cornhill Holdings. Members of Hotbed invested £1.15m alongside Sand Aire Private Equity in February 2004 in a deal with total funding of over £20m. By the time of exit the number of Hotbed investors had risen to 70, investing a total of £2.15m. Gary Robins, chief executive of Hotbed, explains its popularity: “Not only is Home & Legacy a rapidly growing and very profitable business in itself, but it is just the kind of deal that private investors could not usually hope to access through their own efforts. MBOs consistently generate substantial returns for VCs, so by co-investing alongside Sand Aire our members saw the potential for significant capital growth and income generation coupled with a level of downside protection through the innovative buyout structure Sand Aire had put in place.”

Home and Legacy specialises in buildings and contents policies for mid and high net worth individuals.