Oaktree Capital & Egan Cut Ties After Failure to Raise Funds to Form a Reinsurer

Bill Egan, the former Bank of America Corp. banker who was working with Oaktree Capital Group LLC to start a reinsurance venture, has cut ties with the asset manager, according to people familiar with the matter.

His exit follows a struggle to raise enough funds to set up an operation with adequate scale, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing personnel matters. He’d been working with Los Angeles-based Oaktree since 2014.

Oaktree had sought to start a reinsurer with XL Group Plc, but investor interest in the industry has been waning after prices for the coverage declined amid increased competition. Hedge fund manager John Paulson recently shut down a reinsurer, and Dan Loeb’s Third Point Reinsurance Ltd. is trading for less than the price of its 2013 initial public offering.

Egan previously worked for Credit Suisse First Boston. He joined Merrill Lynch & Co. in 1999 to focus on insurance dealmaking and began leading Bank of America’s financial institutions group in 2009. He didn’t immediately respond to messages seeking comment.

Alyssa Linn, a spokeswoman for Oaktree at Sard Verbinnen & Co., declined to comment. A representative for XL, the Dublin-based insurer, didn’t immediately respond to a message.

–With assistance from Devin Banerjee.

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Topics Reinsurance