Less than two months after revealing the acquisition of MS Amlin’s marine pleasure craft book, Aston Clark, the chartered insurance broker backed by Goldman Sachs, has announced the acquisition of Lloyd’s Broker, CRS Yachts. CRS Yachts will maintain its existing brand but will play an active and significant role in the growth strategy of Aston Lark Europe.

“It’s so exciting to have Simon Ballard and the team from CRS Yachts joining forces with Aston Lark Europe and working with our CEO Robert Kennedy,” comments Peter Blanc, Aston Lark Group CEO. “With Euromarine, Haven Knox-Johnston and now CRS Yachts we’re becoming quite the nautical experts! CRS Yachts specialises in the high-end world of superyacht and they place cover for some of the most beautiful craft on the planet.

“It’s an extremely specialised class of business which is facing its own hard market challenges. Simon and the team haven’t missed a beat through COVID and we’re looking forward to an exciting and challenging 2021 together.”

As previously reported, in recent years the superyacht insurance market has seen some changes after a period of excess capacity and under-pricing. We are now seeing some stabilisation in the market with less capacity and recent price rises together with a restriction in available coverage. We are also receiving reports of further consolidation within the industry for both brokers and underwriters which has been driven by the recent changes brought by Brexit and the challenges to a global business and client base.

“We are thrilled to bring CRS Yachts into the Aston Lark group under Robertson Low, albeit temporarily as we are set to rebrand Robertson Low and Wright Insurance Brokers as Aston Lark Europe in April 2021,” says Robert Kennedy, Aston Lark Europe CEO. “CRS Yachts has built a really great business over the last few years with an exciting and dynamic team at its core.”

“We are delighted to be joining the Aston Lark group. In an ever-changing world we believe the strengths of Aston Lark together with their client focussed approach, which matches ours, makes a great collaboration,” adds Simon Ballard, CEO of CRS Yachts. “Together we will be able to service our current and future clients to the highest level. We are all very much looking forward to the future, continuing to grow and offering the superior service levels our many clients have come to expect from us.”

Aston Lark’s acquisition of CRS Yachts is one of a number of interesting consolidative deals that have been completed, or are soon to be completed, within the superyacht insurance sector.

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