Insurance

O’Leary Insurance slips into red as wage bill spikes after €100m sale of firm to US broker

The country’s largest independent brokerage group, bought by Brown & Brown in 2020, grew its turnover last year but fell into the red as wages increased to €10.7m from €7.8m

Losses at O’Leary Insurances increased in 2021 even as the firm’s turnover rose by nearly 8 per cent. Picture: Getty

Losses nearly tripled last year at O’Leary Insurances, the main subsidiary of Ireland’s largest independent brokerage group, as the company increased its wage bill by more than 37 per cent after being acquired by a New York-listed broker.

Brown & Brown Insurance purchased the 60-year-old business at the end of 2020, for a figure reportedly in the region of €100 million.

Accounts filed by the company, which is headquartered in Cork, show that its losses ...