Property and casualty insurer Liberty Mutual Insurance has wrapped up its previously announced acquisition of AmTrust Surety, the US surety operations of AmTrust Financial Services.
Image: Liberty Mutual Insurance headquarters in Boston. (Credit: User54871/Wikipedia.org)
Liberty Mutual completed the acquisition of AmTrust Surety after the transaction satisfied customary closing conditions. The acquired surety business, which was previously managed by Insco Dico, is focused on providing contract, commercial, and subdivision bonds mainly in the Western US.
AmTrust Surety was one of the four businesses of AmTrust Financial’s global surety and credit reinsurance operations that were to be acquired by the insurer for an undisclosed price as per an agreement signed in April 2019.
The other three businesses involved in the deal are AmTrust Insurance Spain, Nationale Borg and Nationale Borg Reinsurance (NBRe).
AmTrust Insurance Spain offers surety bonds across Spain and Latin America while Nationale Borg provides surety, worker disability, and home purchase bonds in the Netherlands and Belgium. NBRe, on the other hand, provides surety, trade credit and political risk reinsurance across the world.
Liberty Mutual expects to complete acquisition of the three businesses in the second half of 2019, depending on receipt of regulatory approvals and meeting of customary closing conditions. The acquisitions of the four businesses are expected to help the US firm become a top three global commercial (re)insurer.
Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom offered legal advice to Liberty Mutual in the transaction.
Liberty Mutual global surety president Tim Mikolajewski said: “Completing the acquisition of the U.S. operations of AmTrust Surety enhances our strong U.S. surety expertise and market leadership, and allows us to better serve our valued U.S. distribution partners and customers.
“When the full scope of the acquisition is complete later this year, it will provide us with an expanded geographic footprint and further strengthen our best-in-class operation.”
For AmTrust Financial, the sale of its global surety and credit reinsurance operations is said to be a major step in its strategic plan to position itself for long-term success. The company is targeting to become a top specialty commercial property and casualty insurer by focusing on local markets and niche products where it can add substantial value.