August 31, 2026

Top Deal: Aon to Acquire USI from KKR for $17 Billion

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Aon plc agreed to acquire USI Insurance Services from KKR and its co-investors for $17 billion in an all-cash transaction, announced August 31, 2026. Joe's transaction record lists the deal at $17 billion; the net price comes to $16.7 billion after roughly $278 million in tax attributes. The deal is currently in Announced status, with a close expected in the fourth quarter of 2026 pending regulatory approval.

This is not a quick flip. KKR first invested in USI in 2017 at a valuation of roughly $4.3 billion, then added to its position again in 2020, 2023, and 2025. Over that nine-year hold, USI's revenue nearly tripled through organic growth and more than 90 add-on acquisitions, while KKR backed a hiring push that more than doubled the size of USI's broker workforce. The exit represents about 6.0 times KKR's original 2017 equity check and 3.4 times its total capital deployed across all four rounds, generating an estimated $3.3 billion in after-tax proceeds for KKR.

A Buy-and-Build Strategy, Not a Bolt-On

USI sits inside KKR's Strategic Holdings portfolio, companies KKR holds directly on its balance sheet with the intent to compound value over long holding periods rather than exit on a typical fund timeline. Ninety-plus acquisitions over nine years averages to roughly ten a year, meaning USI functioned less like a single brokerage under private equity ownership and more like a standing acquisition platform KKR kept refunding at every stage. That is a buy-and-build thesis playing out on schedule, not an opportunistic sale.

What the Buyer Says About the Asset

For Aon, USI is its second major middle-market brokerage acquisition in three years, following NFP in 2024. Aon frames the deal as building the leading platform in the U.S. middle market, a segment it puts at more than $40 billion, and as a more direct route into excess and surplus lines, which Aon says now make up 26% of U.S. commercial P&C premium. The purchase is debt-funded, expected to generate about $395 million in annual run-rate synergies, and expected to add to adjusted earnings per share starting in 2028. Two consecutive multi-billion-dollar middle-market brokerage deals from the same buyer in three years is a pattern worth tracking.

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