Flagstone Reinsurance has signed a share purchase agreement with BF&M to sell its stake in Island Heritage insurance in a cash deal valued at about $68m.

The reinsurer currently owns about 60% interest in Island Heritage and anticipates receiving about $40.8m in cash from the sale.

Flagstone chief executive officer David Brown said the sale of Island Heritage, coupled with the planned divestment of the company’s Lloyd’s operations, further enables it to streamline its core businesses as it continue to execute on its strategic path forward.

"Once these transactions are complete, we can renew our focus on leveraging our existing strengths in order to deliver enhanced value for our shareholders," Brown said.

The deal, anticipated to be completed before the end of the second quarter, follows a string of losses for Flagstone, because of disasters in Japan, New Zealand, Australia and US.