RSA to buy Martello

LONDON— U.K. insurance group Royal & SunAlliance Insurance Group P.L.C. has agreed to buy the business of professional indemnity agency Martello Underwriting Limited for £38.5m ($73.1 million) in cash.

Martello writes its business through four core operating units trading under the names PI Direct, PI Brokerlink, Magian Underwriting and Saturn.

The group was founded in 1997 and is one of the largest providers of professional indemnity insurance in the United Kingdom with about 30,000 policies in force.

Martello said in a statement that its trading operations will initially continue to operate under their existing names. Michael Wood will remain chief executive, and the management team will remain in place, it added.

RSA is already a major capacity provider to Martello. The underwriting agency said that following the change of ownership, RSA plans to expand its commitment and become the sole capacity provider across all of Martello's lines of business.