OneBeacon, Interboro
OneBeacon Insurance Group said it is selling its high risk personal auto insurance business, AutoOne, to Interboro Holdings Inc. of New York.
AutoOne, formed in 2001, serves the automobile assigned risk insurance markets primarily in New York and New Jersey.
OneBeacon said it expects to record a charge of approximately $28 million pre-tax ($18 million after tax) in its third quarter financial statements reflecting the estimated loss on the sale of AutoOne.
OneBeacon said it will transfer AutoOne Insurance Co. and AutoOne Select Insurance Co., including the assets, liabilities (including loss reserves and unearned premium reserves), and the equity capital of the business to the new owner. It will also transfer staff, systems and office space in Melville, N.Y.
Interboro Insurance, based in Mineola, N.Y., sells auto and home insurance. CEO David Nichols told Insurance Journal the deal gives his company potential for growth in upstate New York and in New Jersey as well as more auto business to help balance its growing homeowners book of business. He said the company hopes to use the AutoOne network of brokers to help it expand.
The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2011.
OneBeacon said the sale does not affect its specialty insurance operations.
“This transaction allows us to continue our focus on our higher performing specialty operations, while aligning AutoOne with an owner committed to serving the personal automobile insurance market,” said OneBeacon CEO Mike Miller.
Interboro was formerly Interboro Mutual, which was placed in rehabilitation by state regulators in 2004. It emerged from insolvency in 2007.
Northeast Bank, Varney Agency, Spence and Mathews
Lewiston, Maine-based Northeast Bank Insurance Group has been acquired by local agencies in two separate transactions. The Varney Agency, of Bangor, Maine, purchased the assets of nine Northeast Bank insurance offices covering southern, central and western Maine.
Related to the deal, Brad Scott, currently a member of the Northeast Bank Insurance Group’s senior management team, has acquired the assets of Spence and Mathews Insurance, which operates one insurance office in Berwick, Maine, and serves about 6,000 customers in southern Maine and Seacoast New Hampshire.
The bank said that the total sale proceeds of $9.7 million will add approximately $8.4 million to its tangible equity.
Rick Wayne, president and CEO of Northeast Bancorp, said the bank would continue to have a business relationship with both the Varney Agency and Spence and Mathews Insurance after the transaction closes. Northeast Bank will be referring customers with insurance needs to each of these agencies.
In both transactions, existing Northeast Bank Insurance Group customer insurance policies, carriers, terms, and the majority of account service representatives will remain, according to the companies.
Varney said the deal allows his agency to add offices in new parts of the state and gives it the talent of Northeast’s insurance employees.
Scott, the new owner of Spence and Mathews, said he will continue operating out of the Berwick office.
The Spence and Mathews Insurance Agency was founded in 1935 and sells home, auto, and business insurance in southern Maine and New Hampshire.
The Varney Agency has been serving Maine since 1980. After this transaction, it will have 22 full-service branch offices located throughout the state.
NSM, AFPD
NSM Insurance Group has acquired AFPD, a New York-based program administrator for lawyers and dentists errors and omissions programs.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
NSM is a national program manager based in Conshohocken, Penn.
Administrators for the Professions of Delaware Inc. (AFPD), based in Lake Success, New York, administers a national admitted dentists professional liability program. In 1998, AFPD created an admitted lawyers professional liability program that targets firms having one to five attorneys at inception. In 2009, AFPD expanded its target market to 1-100 attorneys at higher available limits in all states except California and New Jersey.
The lawyers program is underwritten by Chartis. The dentists program is underwritten by Medical Protective, a Berkshire Hathaway company.
Hanover
The Hanover Insurance Group added a new District of Columbia Metro branch office in Reston, Va. The new branch office will address commercial insurance needs of the business communities of the District of Columbia, northern Virginia and Maryland’s Montgomery County.
Topics New York New Jersey Maine
Was this article valuable?
Here are more articles you may enjoy.
Insurer Chubb Readies $350M Payout Tied to Baltimore Bridge Collapse 
Cracks in O’Hare Columns Aren’t Insured Property Damage, Just Bad Product – Court 
Three Insurers Reject Chevron’s $57 Million Claim for Iran Oil Seizure 
Michigan Supreme Court Rules Against Couple in Drone Surveillance Case From This Issue
