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Former Marsh CEO re-emerging to run Bermuda reinsurer

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Former Marsh CEO re-emerging to run Bermuda reinsurer

Brian Duperreault, the high-profile insurance industry leader who led the turnaround of Marsh & McLennan Cos. Inc., is coming out of retirement to run a Bermuda reinsurance firm.

SAC Re Ltd., the Bermuda reinsurance unit of troubled Stamford, Conn.-based hedge fund SAC Capital Advisors L.P., is being sold to Hamilton Insurance Group Ltd., a holding company controlled by Mr. Duperreault, Hamilton Insurance Group said in a statement Tuesday.

Hamilton Insurance Group has a definitive agreement to acquire SAC Re, a Bermuda property and casualty reinsurer, from SAC Capital.

Upon completion of the transaction, SAC Re will be renamed Hamilton Re and Mr. Duperreault will become its CEO. New York-based hedge fund firm Two Sigma Investments L.L.C. will be part of the investor group buying the reinsurance entity. After the deal closes, Two Sigma will be the sole investment manager for Hamilton Re's investable assets.

Terms of the deal, expected to be completed by the end of December and subject to approvals by the Bermuda Monetary Authority and other regulators, were not disclosed.

“I am very excited to partner with Two Sigma in this endeavor,” Mr. Duperreault said in the statement. “Two Sigma and I have been working together towards the launch of a new company in the industry and this transaction provides the ability to move forward on an accelerated timetable with a strong team in Bermuda.”

Mr. Duperreault, 65, retired from Marsh & McLennan in December 2012, after five years in which he led the brokerage's rebound from a bid-rigging scandal sparked in 2004 by a lawsuit filed by then-New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer.

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Previously, Mr. Duperreault was CEO and president of Ace Ltd. from 1994 to 2004, a period of consistent growth for the insurer.

SAC Re started last year with $500 million in funding from billionaire trader Steven A. Cohen. It was part of Mr. Cohen's SAC Capital Advisors. SAC Capital pleaded guilty in November to insider trading. As part of the guilty plea, the firm agreed to $1.8 billion in fines and to divest its reinsurance business.

"We are proud of our role in founding SAC Re, but we are now focusing on our transition to a family office and our core investing business,” a SAC Capital spokesman said in a separate statement to Business Insurance.

Jonathan Reiss, chief financial officer of SAC Re, said in Hamilton Insurance Group's statement said the reinsurance company will get a fresh start under Hamilton and the sale “provides clarity for our clients and our regulators,'' and we are confident Hamilton Re has a bright future.

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