Bermudian insurance, reinsurance and financial services holding company White Mountains Insurance Group, Ltd. is reportedly seeking a sale of its specialty insurance arm One Beacon.
Bloomberg said yesterday that people familiar with the matter say that One Beacon is being shopped to potential acquirers, and that the re/insurer has charged Credit Suisse with running the process.
Offers are being solicited from insurers that may find One Beacon an attractive acquisition, Bloomberg reported.
One M&A specialist told us that White Mountains would likely only sell if the price is right, and that the re/insurer sees this as a potentially opportune moment to launch the sale when returns in re/insurance have been under increasing pressure, pushing companies to search for scale and diversification via M&A transactions.
One Beacon had also been shopped around in 2015 though, with no acquirer coming forward, so there is no guarantee that a sale will be easier this time around.
White Mountains sold its Sirius International Insurance Group to China Minsheng Investments in 2015.
