Exclusive | Aon Nears Roughly $17 Billion Deal for Insurance Brokerage USI

Aon AON 1.67%increase; up pointing triangle is near an agreement to buy insurance brokerage USI Insurance from private-equity firm KKR KKR -0.59%decrease; down pointing triangle for roughly $17 billion, including debt, according to people familiar with the matter.

A deal could be announced as soon as Monday, the people said, assuming it comes together.

USI, based in Valhalla, N.Y., is an insurance brokerage and consulting firm. It helps businesses and individuals find policies and build benefit plans, among other things, and has roughly $3 billion in annual revenue, according to its website.

KKR acquired USI from the private-equity firm Onex in 2017 alongside the Canadian investment firm CDPQ for $4.3 billion. KKR has since made additional investments to increase its ownership stake in the business and become the largest shareholder.

Aon, a large insurance broker and consulting firm, has long specialized in helping businesses manage risk, healthcare benefits and retirement wealth. The acquisition would expand Aon’s capabilities in helping midsize businesses and is expected to increase earnings per share as soon as 2028, a person familiar with the matter said.

The deal would be the latest in a string of big exits for KKR at a time when the private-equity industry has been struggling to unload assets. The firm reported its best-ever quarterly asset sales in the latest period, at $1.29 billion.

Recent exits include the sale of the data-center cooling business CoolIT, on which it made about 15 times the equity it invested, and the sale of the commercial and defense aerospace unit of pump-and-valve maker Circor.

Earlier this year, KKR closed a $23 billion fund focused on private-equity investments in North America, bringing the total amount of capital raised across the most recent vintages of KKR’s flagship regional funds to $46 billion, the firm has said.

Aon had a market value of around $75 billion as of Friday. The company has reported rising demand for its commercial risk and reinsurance businesses.

In a similar deal, Aon bought NFP, a middle-market property and casualty insurance broker, for about $13 billion in cash and stock from Madison Dearborn and HPS Investment Partners in 2024. Madison Dearborn last year bought back most of Aon’s NFP wealth business for around $2.7 billion.