Markel to buy insurance-linked securities manager

Markel Corp. has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire all outstanding shares of insurance-liked securities manager Nephila Holdings Ltd., the companies announced Friday.

Nashville, Tennessee-based Nephila manages more than $12 billion of assets for over 300 geographically diverse investors, according to a statement issued by Richmond, Virginia-based Markel. Upon completion of the transaction, Nephila will continue to operate as a separate business unit and its current management team will remain in place.

The transaction, which is subject to approvals by relevant insurance regulators and other customary closing conditions, is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2018, according to the statement. Markel said the transaction is not subject to any financing condition, and that it plans to finance the deal using cash balances on hand. No further details of the transaction were disclosed.

“The combined assets under management between Nephila and Markel CATCo will stand at approximately $19 billion,” said Richie Whitt, Markel’s co-CEO, in the statement.

Markel CATCo is a specialist asset manager that creates and manages “a series of innovative insurance-linked investment funds which combine cash flows from their retrocession and reinsurance products as investment returns to their fund’s investors,” according to Markel’s website.