Clairvest to Exit Acera as part of Acera Merger with Navacord
TORONTO, Dec. 03, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Clairvest Group Inc. (TSX: CVG) (“CVG”), today announced that it, together with Clairvest Equity Partners VI (“CEP VI”, collectively “Clairvest”), has signed an agreement to sell its minority interest in Acera Insurance Services Ltd. (“Acera” or the “Company”) as part of Acera’s merger with Navacord Corp., one of Canada’s top commercial insurance brokerages. CEO Lee Rogers, Chairman/President Andrew Kemp, Acera’s executive team and Acera’s employee shareholders will be rolling a significant amount of their equity into the merged entity. Closing, which is expected in the first quarter of calendar 2026, is subject to achieving certain closing conditions, including regulatory, court and shareholder approvals.
Acera was formed through the merger and recapitalization of Rogers Insurance and CapriCMW in September 2022. Today, Acera is one of Canada’s largest independent brokerages, with over 750 employee shareholders. The company provides property & casualty and group benefits insurance solutions to both commercial and personal clients. During Clairvest’s three-year partnership, Acera grew EBITDA by 70% and completed 24 tuck-in acquisitions.
The sale is expected to have a positive impact on CVG’s book value of approximately $4.00 per share upon closing over the carrying value as at September 30, 2025.
The proposed Acera-Navacord merger represents an excellent outcome for Navacord and Acera including their respective shareholders, employees and customers.
“We are very proud of what has been accomplished over the past three years. From the outset, Lee and Andrew demonstrated exceptional partnership and commitment to building a high-performance organization. It has been a privilege to support them through this phase of Acera’s growth, and we are excited to see the company continue its success in its next chapter with Navacord. Clairvest remains a committed investor in the insurance sector, building on our track record of success with Shepell-fgi, Digital Media Solutions, and now Acera,” said Mitch Green, Managing Director of Clairvest.
“Clairvest has been an instrumental partner from the very beginning. Their support was pivotal in catalyzing the merger transaction in 2022, and their guidance helped Acera accelerate its growth across Canada. Mitch, Ethan, and the Clairvest team brought analytical rigour and strategic insight, strengthening our business at every step. We are grateful for the partnership and proud of what we’ve built together,” said Lee Rogers, CEO of Acera.
“Acera is a great example of Clairvest’s entrepreneur-centric minority ownership investment program that supports transformative outcomes while allowing management partners to retain control. Much of Acera’s success is attributable to organizational alignment. We are excited to build on our success with this model in the insurance domain,” said Ethan Wolfe, Vice President of Clairvest.
About Clairvest
Clairvest’s mission is to partner with entrepreneurs to help them build strategically significant businesses. Founded in 1987 by a group of successful Canadian entrepreneurs, Clairvest is a top performing private equity management firm with over CAD$4.3 billion of capital under management. Clairvest invests its own capital and that of third parties through the Clairvest Equity Partners limited partnerships in owner-led businesses. Under the current management team, Clairvest has initiated investments in 69 different platform companies and generated top quartile performance over an extended period.
Forward-looking Statements
This news release contains forward-looking statements with respect to Clairvest Group Inc., its subsidiaries, its CEP limited partnerships and their investments. These statements are based on current expectations and are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Clairvest, its subsidiaries, its CEP limited partnerships and their investments to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include the ability of Acera and Navacord to satisfy the closing conditions included in their definitive merger agreement. Clairvest is under no obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained herein should material facts change due to new information, future events or otherwise.
Contact Information
Stephanie Lo
Director of Investor Relations and Marketing
Clairvest Group Inc.
Tel: (416) 925-9270
stephaniel@clairvest.com
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