Safeco and Liberty Mutual Agency Markets companies are a “great fit” geographically and by line of insurance, according to Gary Gregg, president of Liberty Mutual Agency Markets.
He said Safeco’s strength in personal lines generally and in the West in particular complements Liberty Mutual’s overall strengths in commercial lines and in the East, although there is some overlap both geographically and by line.
According to Gregg, it’s also a great fit because the “core competencies and cultures are very complementary.”
“I’ve gotten to know the really sharp people at Safeco. Their product management and innovation skills are tremendous. I think when you marry that up with our excellence in building deep agency relationships, we have the potential to combine two really powerful core competencies,” he told Insurance Journal.
Liberty Mutual finalized its acquisition of Ohio Casualty Corp. and its $1.4 billion in premium last August. Gregg says he is confident Liberty Mutual can handle the merger with Safeco, a much bigger company with $5.9 billion in premium, even though it is still dealing with the Ohio Casualty merger.
“These things are always a challenge and put stress on an organization. I think we’ve shown the ability to do it well,” Gregg said, referring to Ohio Casualty merger.
Soon he and Safeco CEO Paula Reynolds will put together a senior teams to assess how to move forward. Until the deal closes, he said there are antitrust restrictions on what he can say and what the two insurers can do together.
Gregg thinks the deal will create opportunities for agencies. “There’s a lot of market out there… so we’ve still got plenty of room to grow with our agents.”
He did say that the Safeco name would live on, including on the Seattle Mariners’ baseball park, Safeco Field.
Liberty Mutual might be done buying for a while. “Well I think we might want to regroup and make sure we get this one humming. The potential here is huge… I’ll be taking a bit of a break,” Gregg said.
Topics Ohio
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