Business Moves

Oswald Companies, J.A. Ice & Assoc.

The Cleveland-based Oswald Companies has acquired J.A. Ice & Associates, a nationally recognized insurance broker specializing in the placement of property and casualty insurance for messenger and courier companies.

The business will build upon and be combined with Oswald’s existing trucking practice into a new practice known as Oswald Logistics Insurance. Jeffery Ice will serve as national practice leader of the logistics division. Ice and 12 employees will continue to operate out of the former agency’s offices in Strongsville, Ohio.

Marc S. Byrnes, president and chief executive officer of Oswald an independent, employee-owned insurance brokerage firm said that “joining forces allows us to apply even greater depth of expertise and leading insurance providers to serve clients in the transportation and logistics industry on a national basis.”

According to the 2002 U.S. Economic Census report, messenger and courier companies constitute a $59 billion industry. Specialized insurance products Oswald provides to businesses include coverage for property, business income, electronic data processing, general liability, cargo, bank cargo, employee dishonesty and bonding, warehousing, worker’s compensation, occupational accident, owned automobile, and non-owned and hired automobile liability, as well as umbrella coverage.

John L. Ward has launched Ward Partners LLC, a Cincinnati-based advisory firm specializing in the insurance services industry. Through its proprietary Think Like an Investor program, Ward Partners, LLC will reportedly work with a select group of insurance services companies to help them build enterprise value. The firm’s team will work closely with senior management at these companies to improve the current product offering, expand the scope of services and more effectively serve their insurance industry clientele.

Ward Partners LLC is currently in discussions with a number of companies about participating in the Think Like an Investor program. Insurance industry services segments that are eligible for the program include claims administration firms, claims recovery firms, underwriting services firms, application software providers, business process outsourcing firms, and education and training firms.

Northwestern Mutual, Midwest Cable

Northwestern Mutual is one of three investors planning to acquire an operator of Midwest cable television, Internet and cable phone systems.

The Milwaukee-based life insurance and financial services provider Northwestern Mutual is a minority investor in WideOpenWest Holdings LLC, an Englewood, Colo., cable systems operator serving 114 municipalities in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Ohio. It operates under the brand name WOW!

Avista Capital Partners, a New York City private equity firm, is the lead investor in the acquisition group. Standard Life Investments, an Edinburgh, Scotland, investment firm, is a minority co-investor in the transaction. The firms are acquiring the cable company from private equity firms Oak Hill Capital Partners, Fort Worth, Texas, and ABRY Partners, Boston. The sale is expected to close in the first half of 2006.

Farm Bureau Mutual, Crop 1

Des Moines, Iowa based Farm Bureau Mutual Insurance Company will double the size of its crop insurance business with its plans to acquire Crop1Insurance, the first business approved by USDA to sell discounted coverage. Since getting approval to offer the coverage in 2003, Crop1 has grown to 16,000 policies. The acquisition, announced at the Iowa Farm Bureau headquarters is expected to take place in early 2006.

Trost said Crop1 will continue to operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of the Farm Bureau insurer, which sells insurance in eight states in the Midwest and West. Farm Bureau Mutual is one of several insurers who have received USDA approval to sell discounted coverage in 2006. Trost said it plans to offer the discount through its own captive agents and through the independent agents who have been working with Crop1. According to Billy Rose, Jr. CEO of Crop1, his insurance business has saved its customers about $1,000 a year in premium costs. Congress has killed USDA funding for such coverage in 2007. Rose plans to go back to the Hill to fight for USDA funding.