RYAN

Ryan Specialty is a leading specialty insurance distributor — a wholesale broker, MGU and program administrator focused on the excess-and-surplus (E&S) market, which management notes offers 'significantly more flexibility in terms, conditions, and rates' than the admitted market. FY2025 revenue grew 21.9% to $2.99B, continuing a strong multi-year trajectory ($1.71B in FY2022 to $2.99B now), and operating income rose 15.4% to $494M for a 16.5% operating margin. Crucially, GAAP net income of just $63.4M (-33.0%) understates the economics: under the Up-C holding structure, much of the LLC's income is allocated to non-controlling interests and absorbed by interest expense, intangible amortization and Tax Receivable Agreement obligations, so the headline net margin of 2.1% is not the right lens. Operating cash flow of $644M (+25.0%) is the better gauge of the franchise's earning power.

The growth engine is a mix of organic E&S expansion and acquisitions — FY2025 brought Velocity, USQRisk and 360 Underwriting, expanding the MGU footprint. Looking forward, the three-year Empower restructuring program (launched Q1 2026) is expected to incur ~$160M of one-time charges through 2028 but deliver ~$80M of annual savings from 2029, a meaningful margin catalyst. The balance sheet shows $3.29B of long-term debt and a 14.37x liabilities/equity ratio, but the latter is inflated by fiduciary/premium balances (current liabilities of $5.19B largely offset by current assets of $5.06B) rather than purely corporate leverage.