Houlihan Lokey Advises BIK

Houlihan Lokey is pleased to announce the sale of a majority stake in BIK to Pollen Street Capital from Syntaxis Capital and BIK's founding shareholders for an undisclosed amount. The transaction was announced on July 31, 2018.

BIK is a rapidly growing insurance services platform focused primarily on the corporate motor insurance market in Poland. The business was established in 1999 and has since evolved into a leading specialist, offering an end-to-end service from initial policy search and selection advice, to documentation fulfilment, in-life administration, and claims management.

Roman Czarnowski, CEO of BIK, said, "We are very pleased to welcome Pollen Street Capital as our new partner as we look to execute on our growth strategy for the coming years. At the same time, we would like to thank Syntaxis Capital for their involvement and assistance in developing the business over the past few years. The Pollen Street team has a strong heritage in supporting the rapid growth of specialist businesses in the financial and business services sector in Europe, and we are looking forward to working with them to develop BIK's industry-leading services and expanding further within our chosen specialist markets."

Pollen Street is a global, independent alternative asset investment management company focused on the financial and business services sectors and brings together a team of highly seasoned specialists with extensive experience in the UK, the US, and Europe. Pollen Street works closely with entrepreneurial management teams who share their values and whose businesses have strong potential for growth and market share expansion. Technological innovation and changing consumer behaviours are creating opportunities to build specialist businesses that serve well-defined target markets. They help Pollen Street's partner companies to take advantage of these opportunities and to build high-growth, sustainable businesses that deliver a compelling proposition to their customers. Thanks to deep experience in financial and business services, they aim to contribute market, product, and process expertise as well as capital.

Lindsey McMurray, Managing Partner of Pollen Street Capital, said, "We are delighted to have reached an agreement to invest in BIK, which we believe is an excellent example of the kind of high-growth specialist business in which we seek to invest. We are excited by the opportunity to partner with the BIK management team to help the business continue to gain market share and to develop new and innovative customer offerings. We believe BIK's differentiated, technology-led, and customer-focused approach has been key to its strong growth, and we look forward to maintaining that focus to generate future success for the business."

Houlihan Lokey served as the exclusive financial advisor to BIK. This most recent transaction further strengthens Houlihan Lokey's leadership in the insurance universe and highlights continued momentum and leadership in the FIG sector, which includes fintech, insurance, specialty finance, and asset managers. This is also Houlihan Lokey's third financial services transaction in Poland, demonstrating our increasing activity in the country.