Business Moves – Southeast

Confie Seguros, ABRY Partners

Confie Seguros has been acquired by Boston-based private equity firm ABRY Partners in a deal under which the rapidly expanding auto insurer focused on the U.S. Hispanic market says will help it grow to double or triple its size in the next few years.

ABRY Partners acquired a majority of the equity of the large personal lines insurance broker from San Francisco, Calif.-based Genstar Capital.

ABRY focuses on business and information services, media, and communications investments. Since 1989, ABRY has completed more than $36 billion of leveraged transactions and other private equity and mezzanine investments, representing investments in approximately 450 properties.

ABRY Partners’ past investments in the insurance industry include a majority-interest acquisition of N.J.-based insurance outsourcing services firm York Risk Services Group in December 2010 and an investment in NSM Insurance Group, a Pennsylvania-based insurance program administrator, in January 2012.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Buena Park, Calif.-based Confie Seguros has since its inception in 2008 built a portfolio of more than 300 regional auto insurance brokerages. Over the past year Confie Seguros has closed more than 20 deals for retail agencies, and the ABRY acquisition will help continue that momentum, said Confie Seguros President Mordy Rothberg.

“We got a huge pipeline and we’re expanding,” Rothberg said. “Now we have more resources, including capital, to grow the company both organically and externally from acquisitions.”

Confie Seguros CEO Joe Waked said they started working on the deal with ABRY in July, then came to terms about a month-and-a-half ago and closed it on Nov. 9.

Waked said plans now are to accelerate growth in states they are in, as well as into other states.

“We are very pleased with the outcome of this investment for our investors and also for Confie Seguros’s management team and employees,” J. Ryan Clark, a managing director of Genstar, said in a statement.

Hub, Carrion, Laffitte & Casellas

Chicago-based Hub International Limited announced is acquiring Carrion, Laffitte & Casellas Inc. (CLC), an insurance brokerage firm headquartered in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

CLC will become a new regional platform, doing business as Hub International CLC (Hub CLC). Jose Carrion, one of the founders and the president of CLC, his management team and other CLC employees will join Hub and continue operating out of their existing San Juan office and Hub’s Miami, Florida-area office. Carrion will report directly to Neil Morrison, chairman, Hub International Latin America.

CLC serves not only the Puerto Rican market but also clients located throughout the Caribbean, Latin America and the continental United States.

OneBeacon, Armour Group

Continuing its repositioning as a specialty insurer, OneBeacon Insurance Group Ltd. is selling its runoff business to an affiliate of Armour Group Holdings Limited.

OneBeacon said it will transfer to Armour certain legal entities within the OneBeacon group, which will contain the assets, liabilities (including gross and ceded loss reserves), and capital supporting the runoff business, as well as certain elements of the runoff business infrastructure including staff and office space.

Armour is a Bermuda-based group of companies formed in 2007. It includes licensed insurers and reinsurers as well as specialized service companies.

The runoff business includes non-specialty commercial lines and other legacy runoff business. Beginning with the company’s third quarter financials, the runoff business will be accounted for as held for sale and as a discontinued operation.

OneBeacon CEO Mike Miller said the sale of the runoff business is the “final step” in OneBeacon’s transformation to a pure specialty company.

“This complete exit from our legacy liabilities is a major step in that transition. The charge associated with the sale, while significant on a GAAP basis, is in line with our view of the economics of running off the liabilities over time. Importantly, this transaction will free up over $100 million of capital, net of the loss on the transaction, further enhancing our financial flexibility and allowing us to focus our full attention on building on our already high-performing specialty results,” Miller said.

Cooper Gay Swett & Crawford, Lightyear

Cooper Gay Swett & Crawford (CGSC), a global wholesale and reinsurance broking group, has agreed terms with Lightyear Capital LLC and institutional co-investors for a substantial investment into the CGSC Group.

The Investor will own 55 percent of CGSC following the purchase of shares from existing shareholders and a substantial investment in new equity, CGSC said.

While CGSC said the financials of the deal are confidential, the group did confirm that the added resources will help it realize the group’s acquisition ambitions.

“We expect to make further announcements in the near future. … We have made no secret of our desire for an IPO as part of our overall journey. The current time is not right and in order to continue expanding, we sought investment from a third party; in this case, Lightyear Capital,” CGSC said.

The agreement remains subject to shareholder and regulatory approval.

“CGSC’s management remains committed to its employees and growing the company organically and through acquisition. We expect that should help create an environment with exciting growth opportunities for all employees,” the company said.

The deal is expected to close before the end of 2012.

Woodlands Financial

Texas-based The Woodlands Financial Group (TWFG) has announced a substantial expansion of its network, adding new branches in multiple states, from California to Virginia. Many of the new branch managers are former “captive agents,” who are joining TWFG as a result of new programs that offer splits ranging as high as 80/20 for full service branch owners.

The company is also offering a “managing general agent” and “referral program” as options, along with “sales only” branches with a 60/40 split.

Gordy Bunch, president and CEO of the retail and wholesale general agency, said this summer’s addition of more than 200 agents brings TWFG’s insurance services consortium of privately-owned and affiliated branches to 285 retail branches in 20 states and 2,200 independent agents in 38 states.

TWFG writes policies in 49 states. TWFG appears on Insurance Journal’s “Top 100” list in the number 51 position – a jump of 16 spots in the rankings, reflecting a 31 percent increase in P/C premiums over 2010. Sales in 2011 grew from $159 million to more than $208 million. Last year, TWFG was also ranked number 15 in personal lines sales.

New branches now operating under the TWFG banner include: California: Helayne Warschaw, Ventura; Peyling Yap, San Mateo; Mimi Ooi, Sunnyvale; Veronica Gutierrez, Soledad; Loretta Bentley, Lomita; Thomas Snipp, Fontana; Joe Wijono, Fullerton; Delaware: Elaine Halsted, Wilmington; Illinois: Debi and Don Moore, Quincy; Louisiana: Pat Morris, Baton Rouge; Charles Loescher, Chalmette; Oklahoma: Katie Cannon, Shawnee; Pennsylvania: Matthew Clay, Jenkintown; Tennessee: Valerie Edwards, Bartlett; Texas: Mark Brown, Sherman; John Janese, Keller; Marshall Jackson, Longview; Patrick Nganga, Dallas; Francisco Marroquin, Porter; Iris Pinkerton, Houston; and Virginia: Ethan Krash, Glen Allen.

Topics Agencies