National General Holdings has agreed to acquire Elara Holdings, the parent firm of property and casualty (P&C) insurance company Direct General Corporation, for about $165m.
Subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals, the deal is expected to complete in the fourth quarter of this year.
Based in Nashville of Tennessee, Direct General writes non-standard auto business in the Southeastern US.
With around 1,800 employees, the company wrote $483m of net written premium in the last year. It generates highest proportion of premiums in the Florida, Tennessee, Texas, and South Carolina.
The company is said to employ a direct to consumer omni-channel distribution strategy, which includes 417 firm-owned store fronts, a mobile web platform, phone sales centers, kiosks and affinity partners.
National General CEO Barry Karfunkel said: "We expect to realize substantial benefits from transitioning Direct General to our state-of-the-art technology system, advanced pricing analytics, comprehensive reinsurance structure, and as such we expect the transaction will be immediately accretive to earnings.
"We look forward to welcoming the Direct General team and providing them with the broad resources and capabilities that National General has to offer."
Based in New York City, National General offers personal and commercial automobile, homeowners, umbrella, recreational vehicle, motorcycle, supplemental health, and other niche insurance products.
Image: National General to acquire Direct General’s parent company Elara Holdings. Photo: courtesy of adamr / FreeDigitalPhotos.net.