After reaching an agreement to sell its third-party casualty reinsurance business to Fleming earlier this week, the Board of James River Group Holdings, Ltd. has decided to “explore a range of potential strategic alternatives”, including a potential sale or merger.
On Wednesday, James River announced its exit from the reinsurance space via a $277 million transaction with Fleming Intermediate Holdings.
Two days later, and the company’s Board of Directors has initiated an exploration of strategic alternatives. The Board will consider numerous options for the company, including a potential sale, merger, or other strategic transaction.
“Over the past three years, James River’s executive leadership team and board of directors have taken decisive actions to focus resources on core businesses where we have meaningful scale, de-risk the organization, reduce volatility and meaningfully strengthen the balance sheet,” said Ollie Sherman, chairman of the board of directors.
“The board now believes it is appropriate to explore a range of potential strategic alternatives to maximize shareholder value.”
The process has only just started, so as stated by James River, there can be no assurance that this process will result in the firm pursuing a particular transaction or other strategic outcome.
The company also hasn’t set a timetable for completing this process and says that it will disclose further developments when appropriate or necessary.
James River, a Bermuda-based holding company which operate a group of specialty insurance and reinsurance companies, has retained Citi and Ardea Partners as financial advisors.
