Business Moves

Brown & Brown, Excel U/W, Spirit U/W

Brown & Brown Inc. will acquire New Jersey-based Excel Underwriters Alliance Inc. and Spirit Underwriters Inc., the Florid-based brokerage announced.

Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Excel and Spirit offer professional liability, directors and officers (D&O) liability, employment practices liability, managed care/medical malpractice liability, crime, and related liability insurance products and services, primarily to insurance providers and agents. They have combined annual revenues of approximately $1.3 million.

Excel provides open brokerage insurance solutions, while Spirit Underwriters is a managing general underwriter, offering products and services on both a direct and brokerage basis.

The acquired entities will continue to operate under the Excel and Spirit Underwriters brands, as divisions of Brown & Brown’s Mount Laurel, New Jersey-profit center.

Hartford, TARP Funds

The Hartford said it would conduct a public offering of equity and debt securities to repay $3.4 billion it took from the federal government as part of the Treasury’s Capital Purchase Program, also known as the Trouble Asset Relief Program (TARP).

“We appreciate the critical role the government and the American taxpayers have played in stabilizing the financial markets and we are pleased to announce a plan to repurchase Treasury’s investment in fewer than 10 months,” said Liam E. McGee, The Hartford’s chairman, president and chief executive officer.

The offerings will consist of $1.45 billion of common stock and $500 million of mandatory convertible preferred stock. The debt offering related to the repurchase of the government’s preferred stock will consist of $425 million of senior notes. In addition, the company will pre-fund the repurchase of its senior debt maturing in 2010 and 2011 by issuing an additional $675 million of senior notes.

The company plans to use the proceeds of the offering to repurchase the Treasury’s preferred shares once it has received approval to do so. Following the repayment, the U.S. Treasury Department will continue to hold warrants to purchase approximately 52 million shares of The Hartford’s common stock at an initial exercise price of $9.79 per share. The company does not intend to repurchase the warrants.

“The Hartford always viewed this investment as temporary capital and intended to return it as soon as it was prudent. As we have said, we ended the year in a strong capital position, and our fourth quarter results reflected The Hartford’s third sequential quarter of improving core earnings,” McGee said.

Marsh, Rutherfoord

In a move that accelerates its national growth, Marsh & McLennan Agency (MMA), a subsidiary of insurance broker Marsh Inc., has acquired Thomas Rutherfoord, Inc., the country’s 14th largest privately held independent agency.

Marsh & McLennan Agency said the acquisition makes it the country’s 13th largest insurance agency with annual revenue of $171 million.

Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Rutherfoord operates in the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic region. The firm has annual revenues of $81 million, 300 employees and 10 offices located from Philadelphia to the Gulf Coast region.

Rutherfoord’s top three executives, Thomas D. Rutherfoord, Jr., chairman, and vice-chairmen Thomas R. Brown and George A. “Shad” Steadman, III, will continue to lead the regional business. All of Rutherfoord’s employees will remain with the firm and join the MMA network.

Rutherfoord will be the lead brokerage firm in the Mid-Atlantic region and the District of Columbia for Marsh & McLennan Agency.

The firms said that the Virginia-based insurance broker will continue to operate under the Rutherfoord name for the foreseeable future.