Davies Expands its Property Validation Solutions in the UK With Acquisition of Building Validation Solutions Group

LONDON, UK – 14 December 2021 – Davies, the leading specialist professional services and technology business, serving insurance and highly regulated markets, today announced that it has acquired Building Validation Solutions Group of companies (“BVS”), the leading provider of tech-enabled, end-to-end property claims services for the UK insurance market.

Based in Bolton, UK, BVS provides coverage across the UK and specialises in end-to-end claims management, property and subsidence claims validation. The firm is known for its web-based claims administration system, Metrix™, closing more than one third of its claims volumes through an automated process; which can also be integrated with insurers’ internal platforms to fully automate low-value property claims.

BVS will join Davies’ UK based Claims Solutions arm, headed up by CEO Kath Mainon. BVS Managing Director, Chris Brown will continue to lead the business and will report to Davies’ Chief Operating Officer of Property Claims, Russell Crewe. All BVS employees and contractors will continue in their roles within Davies.

In recent years Davies has diversified and deepened its Claims Solutions capabilities to provide home emergency expertise and end-to-end insurance-related vehicle rental, third party intervention and new vehicle replacement. More widely, Davies has increased its annual investment in innovation and digital transformation more than four-fold, including in its CQ claims processing platform, legal AI and automation, its video and drone claims handling solutions, as well as investing in intelligent automation, speech analytics and virtual reality training solutions.

In March 2021 Davies announced that BC Partners had signed a definitive deal to take a majority stake in the business, to support Davies’ next phase of international expansion and continued digital transformation.  The BC Partners deal closed in August, following receipt of regulatory approvals.

Globally, Davies’ 5,500+ colleagues operate across Bermuda, Canada, India, Ireland, Spain, Switzerland, the UK and US. The business delivers professional services and technology solutions across the risk and insurance value chain, including excellence in claims, underwriting, distribution, regulation, customer experience, human capital, digital transformation & change management.

Dan Saulter, Group CEO of Davies commented: “It’s great to welcome Chris and the wider BVS team to Davies. The business has an excellent track record of disrupting the property claims market, and like us, has invested in clever technology to automate claims journeys for insurers and their policyholders.

“We’ve seen more extreme weather in 2021, including plenty of flooding & the recent Storm Arwen bringing catastrophic damages and spikes in claims volumes across the UK. Automating low-value property claims will be essential for the insurance market to deliver the claims experience policyholders deserve when they need it the most in the months and years ahead. The addition of BVS to our growing claims platform provides an exciting opportunity for us to take an automated low-value property claims proposition to our clients.”

Chris Brown, Managing Director of BVS added: “We’re delighted to be joining forces with Davies. Our shared vision of disrupting traditional claims models through investment in automation and digital transformation was an important factor for us and enables us to take a compelling combined proposition to our clients. I look forward to working with Dan, Kath, Russell and the wider Davies team to develop and strengthen our claims solutions offering for our clients.”