Liberty Mutual Insurance has agreed to acquire property and casualty insurer Ironshore from Fosun International in a deal worth about $3bn.

Founded in 2006, Ironshore which operates from three main hubs in the US, Bermuda and London had reported gross premiums written of $2.2bn last year.

It has operations in 15 countries with around 800 employees.

The acquisition is expected to be completed in the first half of next year after securing regulatory approvals and meeting customary closing conditions.

Post acquisition, Ironshore will retain the same management team and brand. It will be part of the larger Liberty Mutual organization, which is increasing its specialty lines operations.

Liberty Mutual Insurance chairman and CEO David Long said: “Ironshore has a track record of profitably underwriting global and diverse specialty risks insurance and is an ideal complement to Liberty Mutual, providing additional scale, expertise, innovation and market relationships to our $5 billion Global Specialty business.”

Purchase price of Ironshore is equivalent to 1.45 times its actual tangible book value as of year-end 2016. It will be subject to closing price adjustments.

Ironshore CEO Kevin H. Kelley said: “The combination of Ironshore and Liberty Mutual is a win-win proposition and value creating for both companies.

“Ironshore will become part of another ‘A’ rated company with a global reach, a strong balance sheet, wide client base and a much greater capacity to drive profitable growth.”

Liberty Mutual operates from 800 offices spread across 29 countries with a workforce of over 50,000.

Last month, Liberty Mutual reported its net written premium in the third quarter of this year increased 6.1% to $9.309bn compared to the same period last year.


Image: Liberty Mutual Insurance global headquarters in Boston, Massachusetts. Photo: courtesy of User54871 and Commons.wikimedia.org.