Interview - Widening the net.

(From Post Magazine)

Cadogan Insurance Services formally merges with Deacon Insurance Services today, with the combined company having the ambitious stated goal of becoming the leading property broker in the UK.

Cadogan chairman David Oatley claims the merged company is "among the top three property insurance brokers in the UK". The combined operation will transact business worth more than GBP30m per annum in gross written premium, provide cover for around 250,000 property units and a total sum insured over GBP20bn.

Mr Oatley is quick to emphasise that it is very much a merger of equals, with West-End-based Cadogan and Bournemouth-based Deacon retaining their individual brands. One of the issues behind this is what he describes as "the healthy regard" both companies have had for each other for several years, even before they both became part of the Hercules Group - Cadogan was bought by Hercules in April 2001, Deacon in 1999.

Mutual admiration

"Deacon saw Cadogan as a powerful commercial property broker, and Cadogan saw Deacon as the foremost block-of-flats insurer in the market," says Mr Oatley. "So we came to the merger from a situation where both sets of staff have a huge amount of respect for their counterparts. One side is not going to be any more or any less important than the other."

Despite sharing a parent company, Mr Oatley stresses: "There was no pressure for the two companies to get together." Instead, he notes: "We ourselves felt it was a project that we needed to investigate to see whether or not we would be stronger moving forward as one, or carrying on co-operating as we have done in the past."