Open +Direct, the financial services division of the Viridian Group, has acquired the Birmingham-based insurance broker Footman James & Company.
The firm is one of Britain's main brokers for specialist vehicles and has about 80,000 customers.
The purchase price was undisclosed but the net asset value of Footman James & Company, which employs around 100 staff, is £250,000 sterling (€405,778).
Viridian is the largest publicly owned company in Northern Ireland, with a turnover in the last financial year of £566 million sterling. Open +Direct offers technology-driven business products such as point-of-sale retail credit, personal loans, home and motor insurance and fleet management.
The Footman James deal is the second insurance acquisition in a month by Open +Direct, and the third this year.
Last month, the company acquired a Co Derry insurance brokerage, S.G. Cathcart & Co, a motorcycle insurance specialist.
In January, it bought Spratt Insurance Services, which has offices in Newtownards, Belfast, Derry and Enniskillen. In a statement, Mr Paul Elliott, managing director of Open +Direct, said the latest acquisition was a further step in the company's strategy of expansion into the personal lines insurance business through organic growth and the acquisition of leading intermediaries.
"The move into the insurance market in Britain is a natural progression for us and through the acquisition of Footman James, Open +Direct is further diversifying its product range into the area of specialist and classic vehicle insurance," Mr Elliott said.
Open +Direct employs more than 275 staff and is currently seeing the creation of new jobs in Belfast through its expansion into the credit market in Britain.
