Christie Insurance commissions jump 31% as new business carries specialist broker through soft marke

Client retention dipped slightly, but enlarged sales teams more than made up for it, helping the hospitality and care specialist’s parent raise its interim dividend by two-thirds

At a time when most brokers are working to protect income in a softening market, the insurance arm of Christie Group has gone the other way. Commission income at Christie Insurance rose 31% in the six months to 30 June, the fastest growth of any business in the AIM-listed group. 

Christie Group is best known for selling pubs, hotels, care homes and nurseries through its agency brand Christie & Co. It reported revenue up 5.4% to £36.0m on Monday. The comparison is £34.1m, last year’s figure restated to strip out a software business sold in January. Operating profit before a one-off pension charge rose 11.1% to £2.4m, and the margin on that basis edged up to 6.6% from 6.3%. 

The statutory figures are less flattering. After a £0.4m non-cash accounting charge from closing the group’s two defined benefit pension schemes to future accrual, operating profit slipped to £2.0m from £2.1m. Pre-tax profit fell to £1.5m from £1.7m. 

Growth from new business, not retention 

Christie Insurance arranges commercial cover and life and protection products for businesses in hospitality, leisure, healthcare, childcare and education and retail. Its growth came from winning new clients rather than keeping existing ones for longer. 

It renewed 87% of existing clients in the half, down slightly from the 90% it reported a year earlier. The group credited the jump in commissions to steadily better performance from its expanded sales teams. These teams sell general trade insurance alongside life and protection cover designed for its sectors. 

Christie doesn’t break out insurance income separately. It sits within the professional and financial services division, whose revenue rose 5.8% to £30.4m. 

Swimming against the tide 

Aon‘s UK market outlook says the retail market kept offering premium reductions across most lines in the second quarter, with motor about the only exception. The Acturis Commercial Broking Index, which tracks the average premium in a typical commercial book, was 4.1% lower in Q2 than a year earlier. 

The biggest listed brokers have been growing organically at roughly mid-single digits. Advisory firm MarshBerry put second-quarter organic growth at 5% for both Aon and Marsh. That isn’t a like-for-like comparison with Christie’s commission figure, and the business is far smaller. But it shows how unusual 31% is right now. 

Owning the transaction from end to end 

Christie’s advantage is how it wins clients. Christie & Co sells a business. Christie Finance often arranges the commercial mortgage. The buyer then needs cover from day one. In its full-year results in April, the group said life cover is a basic requirement for any client taking a commercial mortgage through Christie Finance. 

Deal flow shifted in a way that suits the insurance side. The group sold 607 businesses in the half, up 11.2% from 546. But their combined value fell to about £835m from £978m, because more pubs, pharmacies and shops changed hands, and the average fee dropped 5%. More deals, even smaller ones, mean more new owners who need insuring. 

Christie Finance grew fee income 15%. Its pipeline of loan offers already approved by lenders was 27% higher than a year earlier. 

Valuation adds another link. Pinders and the group’s valuation teams valued more than £4.4bn of assets in the half, up from £3.2bn, for lenders making new loans, monitoring existing ones and refinancing. Christie Insurance has used Pinders valuations to check building sums insured. That matters at a time when underinsurance is increasingly seen as a systemic problem. 

Hospitality still squeezed 

Venners, the stock audit business that serves pubs and restaurants, grew revenue 2.1%. Existing clients stretched the gaps between stock counts to save money, which held growth back. Trading improved through the half, with second-quarter revenue 5.5% ahead of the first. 

The wider sector remains under strain. The British Beer and Pub Association counted 161 pub closures in Britain in the first quarter, 26% more than a year earlier. 

Dividend up, balance sheet tidied 

The interim dividend rises to 1.25p from 0.75p and will be paid on 6 November to shareholders on the register on 9 October. Cash stood at £8.7m, up £3.7m on a year earlier. It was £0.7m lower than in December, after bonuses and commissions for 2025 were paid out. 

The group has also been reshaping itself: 

Vennersys sale. In January it completed the sale of Vennersys, which it called its last loss-making business. The deal brought £0.5m upfront, with up to £0.9m more due within 18 months if performance conditions are met. 
Pension schemes. Both defined benefit schemes, which remain in surplus, closed to future accrual in April as the group works towards a full buy-out. 
Hiring. Headcount rose 4.4%. The group says the revenue from those new hires will come through in later periods. 
Ireland. In August it expanded its dental brokerage and advisory service in the Republic of Ireland. 
Board. This month it appointed Darren Bond, global managing director of Christie & Co, to the board.

Chief executive Dan Prickett said the first half built on “an exceptionally strong year of growth in FY25”. He added that investor and lender appetite for the group’s sectors had held up despite uncertainty at home and abroad. 

How the rest of the year looks 

The board expects a full-year result in line with market forecasts. Before the announcement, those forecasts pointed to revenue of £75.0m and adjusted pre-tax profit of £4.6m, below last year’s £6.0m. Some 2025 deals completed earlier than planned, and the group is still investing in hiring. It again expects to sell more than 1,000 businesses and says invoicing will be weighted to the second half. 

Shore Capital analyst Rob Sanders argued before the results that the shares were significantly undervalued, putting a potential value of 250p on them. Shore Capital is Christie’s nominated adviser and broker. The shares have risen more than 40% this year but slipped on Monday. 

For intermediaries, Christie is a small-cap example of a wider idea. When prices fall, being in the room when a business changes hands may be worth more than any rate rise. 

Source