Canada’s Fairfax buys Brit Insurance for a discount
Canada's Fairfax Financial Holdings RiverStone runoff unit will buy Brit Insurance from Brit Group for $300 million, with Fairfax’s chief executive Prem Watsa declaring the company are keen to seize on runoff opportunities.
Brit Insurance, which wrote UK domestic as well some international insurance and reinsurance, was placed in runoff earlier this year. A statement from Fairfax stated that RiverStone will buy Brit Insurance at a discount to its book value; said to be roughly $530 million.
The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2012.