Marsh has taken home the award for Insurance Adviser of the Year in Europe, with judges saying they were impressed by the insurer’s innovation while remaining a solid player.  

The judges pointed out that infrastructure M&A is dynamic and there were unique challenges during the judging period primarily relate to the ever-changing profile of transactions in the infrastructure market. 

A judge said: “Insurer has proven of being a solid player in the infra world and also ability to innovate (like in the green Hydrogen insurance).” 

Marsh has a team of 500-plus infrastructure experts supporting clients throughout the entire lifecycle of infrastructure projects.  

The submission said: “In a global insurance broking market, estimated to be more than $1.1 billion annually, across construction projects, new infrastructure M&A and placement of cover for operational projects, Marsh has the cross-specialty strength to deliver a comprehensively differentiated capability and service to the infrastructure community, beyond any proposition that competitors may pitch.” 

It continued: “Marsh’s proactive approach to risk assessment and mitigation has allowed it to identify potential risks early on and implement strategies to minimize their impact.  

“During the judging period, Marsh continued to evolve its advisory option to enable vast investments in infrastructure across an expanding variety of sectors, including bringing to close a construction deal that took seven years to complete.” 

The insurer gave the example of a UK-based private equity client wanted to invest in a green energy project in Africa. The project had substantial challenges including legal issues. The public entity buying the power was slow in making payments as it continued to struggle with the declining value of the local currency, which was challenging given there was no payment guarantee from the government. 

The submission said: “Marsh’s political risk team placed a best-in-class, bespoke political risk insurance policy with a syndicate of 7 insurers and a 7-year policy period. The insured and Marsh worked diligently to address ongoing concerns from underwriters, based on numerous key deal documents with critical underwriting information. Marsh secured adequate capacity by leveraging relationships with underwriters, developed a tailored policy with coverage for various risks and resolved several last-minute issues.” 

This enabled the client to buy an interest in the project.