NEW YORK & HAMILTON, Bermuda–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Premia Holdings Ltd. announced today that it has entered into an agreement to acquire Armour Re Ltd., a Bermuda-based P&C legacy reinsurer and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Armour Group Ltd., an Aquiline Capital Partners LLC portfolio company, in an all-share transaction.
In conjunction with the acquisition, an Aquiline-led investor group is making a growth equity investment in Premia. Between the equity raise and the sidecar raised at the end of 2020, Premia has significant fresh capital to execute on opportunities in the fast-growing legacy market.
Bill O’Farrell, Chief Executive Officer of Premia, said: “We are delighted to have reached an agreement with Armour and Aquiline. We believe this transaction is a major milestone for Premia to further consolidate its position as a leading legacy P&C reinsurer. The Armour acquisition accelerates the build out of our US and European operations. Premia is also excited to be partnering with Aquiline, one of the pre-eminent investors in the insurance sector. We look forward to welcoming the staff and our new shareholder into the Premia family”.
Chris Collins, Managing Director of Kelso & Company (“Kelso”), Premia’s majority shareholder, said: “Bill O’Farrell and team have built Premia into a differentiated, industry leading run-off reinsurer since we founded the company with Arch and management in 2017. The Armour transaction is highly strategic in enhancing Premia’s capabilities and providing additional capital to accelerate growth. Premia is well-positioned to capitalize on the attractive opportunity in the P&C run-off market, and we are excited to continue to support Bill and the Premia team while welcoming a new shareholder in Aquiline.”
Jeff Greenberg, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer at Aquiline, said: “We are excited to partner with Bill and the Premia team, who we believe are best-in-class in the P&C legacy market. We are also excited to partner with Kelso and Arch who are well respected insurance industry investors. Our decision to invest in Premia reflects our belief that the P&C legacy sector will continue to be highly attractive.”
Premia will acquire Armour in a two-part transaction. Initially, Armour will transfer certain service contracts and staff members to Premia. Premia will then acquire 100% of Armour Re Ltd. in exchange for Premia shares.
TigerRisk Capital Markets & Advisory is acting as exclusive financial advisor to Armour on this transaction. Clifford Chance and DLA Piper are acting as legal advisors to Armour and Premia, respectively.
About Premia Holdings Ltd.
Premia is a leading reinsurance group focused on transactions in the P&C legacy market. Premia was established in January 2017 in Bermuda and sponsored by Arch Capital Group and Kelso & Company with a $510m capital raise. Today, Premia has operations in Bermuda, Europe and the U.S. with over $2bn of acquired loss reserves since 2017.
About Kelso & Company
Kelso is one of the oldest and most established firms specializing in private equity investing. Since 1980, Kelso has invested approximately $15 billion of equity capital in more than 130 transactions. Kelso has significant experience investing in financial services, having deployed approximately $3 billion of equity capital in the sector. For more information, please visit www.kelso.com.
About Arch Capital Group Ltd.
Arch Capital Group Ltd., a Bermuda-based company with approximately $15.8 billion in capital at Dec. 31, 2020, provides insurance, reinsurance and mortgage insurance on a worldwide basis through its wholly owned subsidiaries.
About Armour Group
Founded in Bermuda in 2007, Armour is a specialist in legacy P&C transactions across multiple geographies and diverse lines of business. It operates both as a principal and as service-provider fund manager, with a significant component of service fee income.
About Aquiline Capital Partners
Aquiline Capital Partners, founded in 2005, is a private investment firm based in New York and London investing in businesses across the financial services sector in financial technology, insurance, investment management, business services, credit and healthcare. The firm has $5.6 billion in assets under management as of September 30, 2020.
