London-headquartered Aon is nearing a roughly $17 billion agreement, including debt, to acquire insurance brokerage USI Insurance Services from private-equity firm KKR. An official announcement could arrive as early as Monday, depending on the finalization of ongoing negotiations.
The prospective transaction could be announced as soon as Monday, provided both parties successfully conclude their talks. Aon, which closed out the trading week with a market capitalization of about $75 billion, is pursuing the purchase to expand its footprint among midsize corporate clients.
Transaction Structure and Target Valuation
Valhalla, New York-based USI generates approximately $3 billion in annual revenue by providing insurance brokerage and consulting services to individual and corporate clients. Based on the roughly $17 billion valuation including debt, the purchase multiple sits at approximately 5.7 times sales.
For KKR, the sale represents a major realization point. KKR and Canadian pension fund Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec originally acquired USI from Onex Corporation in 2017 for $4.3 billion, including debt. KKR subsequently injected more than $1 billion in additional investments, making it the company’s largest shareholder.
Consolidation Strategy in Middle-Market Brokerage
This pending deal follows a pattern of large-scale expansion for Aon. In 2024, the company acquired middle-market property and casualty insurance broker NFP for about $13 billion in cash and stock from Madison Dearborn Partners and HPS Investment Partners.
Madison Dearborn later bought back most of NFP’s wealth-management operation from Aon for approximately $2.7 billion. Adding USI would significantly increase the scale of Aon’s middle-market operations, giving the combined entity greater access to insurance carriers, data, and specialized advisory capabilities.
The transaction is expected to add to Aon’s earnings per share as early as 2028. The push mirrors a broader industry trend where size can provide greater access to carriers, data and specialized advisory capabilities.
Capital Recycling for Private Equity
Private-equity managers have faced sustained pressure to return capital to investors following a prolonged slowdown in dealmaking and exits. KKR recorded $1.29 billion of asset sales in its latest quarter, marking its highest quarterly total.
Recent realizations for the firm include the sale of data-center cooling company CoolIT—which generated about 15 times its invested equity—and the divestiture of Circor’s commercial and defense aerospace business.
At the same time, KKR has maintained aggressive fundraising momentum. Earlier in the year, the private-equity firm closed a $23 billion North America-focused fund, pushing total capital raised across its flagship regional funds to $46 billion.
Regulatory Backdrop and Market Context
Aon’s appetite for massive acquisitions comes years after a major regulatory hurdle disrupted its expansion plans. In 2021, an attempt by Aon to merge with Willis Towers Watson collapsed following antitrust objections raised by the U.S. Department of Justice.
While equity analysts maintain mixed sentiment—such as RBC Capital Markets carrying a Sector Perform rating and recently trimming its price target on Aon stock—the company continues to pursue transformative scale through targeted private equity buyouts.
