Optio Group, the specialty MGA, today announces it has hired Paul Tominey as senior underwriter, Warranty & Indemnity (W&I), effective immediately, and increased its W&I line size for single risks, from GBP12m to GBP20.5m.

Both developments will further strengthen Optio’s W&I proposition in meeting the increasing demand for transactional liability insurance for SMEs, where M&A activity remains frenetic.
Tominey joins Optio with 10 years of experience and will report to Alex Smith, head of Optio’s SME transactional liability business. Previously Tominey served as senior associate at global law firm DLA Piper, where he advised primarily on buy-side, PE-backed transactions. Tominey brings considerable experience across a range of sectors in the UK, US, Middle East and Nordic regions.

Smith said:

“Despite the Covid-related M&A slump, the SME market was resilient, retaining a high level of seller and investor confidence through 2020 and 2021. As a result, our offering in the SME space has gone from strength to strength and, in addition to Paul’s appointment and our increase in line size, further hires are likely to help meet demand. Paul’s broad and specialist M&A experience will be enormously beneficial to us and our clients and I am delighted to welcome him to Optio.”

Matthew Fosh, executive chairman, Optio Group said:

“Under Alex’s leadership, our SME W&I proposition continues to expand considerably as an increasingly important area of specialism for Optio. The measures announced today will further strengthen Optio’s position, in an area of the M&A market that continues to grow.”