Cooper Gay completes sale of U.S. business

Cooper Gay Swett & Crawford Ltd. has completed the sale of CGSC North America Holdings Corp. to BB&T Corp., Cooper Gay Swett & Crawford announced Monday.

Cooper Gay Swett & Crawford said all necessary regulatory approvals have been obtained to complete the $500 million deal, which consists of Cooper Gay's U.S. wholesale insurance brokerage operations, specialty managing general agencies including J.H. Blades & Co. and its U.S. reinsurance brokerage business. It doesn't include Creechurch International Underwriters Ltd., a specialty managing general agent that operates in Canada.

The deal was announced Feb. 24.

“The completion of the sale of Swett & Crawford means that we are now in a position to take our business forward and to begin implementing our strategy in earnest,” said Steve Hearn, Cooper Gay Group CEO, in a statement announcing the completion of the deal. “It affords us the ability to evolve and to build a business which will be set apart from our peers, through a focus on innovation and an appetite to drive change in our market. We have the foundation on which to build a truly exceptional business, and we now have the resources to realize this potential.”