Compre, the independent legacy acquirer, announces that today Will Bridger and Mark Lawson have taken over as joint CEOs from Compre co-founder Nick Steer.

Under the co-CEO-ship of Bridger and Lawson, Compre is set for strong, sustained growth, drawing on the leadership strengths and combined experience of their previous roles as Managing Director of Acquisitions and Group Actuarial Director respectively. Compre is focused purely on the acquisition and management of non-life legacy portfolios, having exited its third-party servicing business in 2017.

The business is poised for further growth after securing additional debt and equity capital and by working with its reinsurance partners, effectively increasing the size and flexibility of Compre’s
capital base. A recently arranged revolving credit facility will also assist in scaling the business. This additional capacity will help Compre build on its accomplishments of last year, having signed its largest ever transaction with Generali, and established a protected cell company in Malta.

To date, Compre has completed 11 company and 29 portfolio acquisitions across 11 European countries.

Bridger said: “It gives me great pleasure to take on the CEO role with Mark, who shares my passion and drive to continue to develop Compre into one of the major players in the legacy sector. There are great opportunities, which we will work tirelessly to capitalise on to make Compre bigger and stronger.”

Lawson said: “Compre has a strong acquisition pipeline in Europe, driven by weekly discussions across Europe with counterparties to help them identify and realise value trapped by legacy liabilities. Continental Europe remains Compre’s heartland but we are highly ambitious and further territories are under consideration.”