Insurance industry M&A transactions require lawyers who understand not only the anatomy of an M&A deal, but also the unique aspects of an insurance company’s operations and the corresponding insurance regulatory, securities law, insurance company taxation and accounting paradigms. In addition, as insurance enterprises acquire and dispose of various other types of financial services entities, it is essential for counsel handling such transactions to understand the complexities related to such entities, including investment managers and advisors, investment funds, banks and broker-dealers.
Our group includes a team of lawyers dedicated to handling insurance industry M&A transactions. We handle a broad range of domestic and cross-border M&A and strategic transactions, on behalf of both strategic and financial buyers/sellers, involving a variety of institutions in the insurance and financial services industries, including insurance companies, insurance intermediaries, investment managers and advisors, broker-dealers, mortgage lenders and other insurance and financial services related entities. Our practice covers the full range of M&A services, including public and private company mergers and stock and asset acquisition and divestiture transactions, mutual company mergers, sponsored dematerializations, joint ventures, private equity and venture capital investments, leveraged buyouts, spin-offs and split-offs, recapitalizations, unsolicited takeovers and takeover defenses and issuer and third party tender offers.
We have also been at the forefront of developing and executing alternative transaction structures for the acquisition, disposition and financing of insurance books of business, such as through bulk reinsurance and renewal rights transactions. In addition, we have been successful in applying distinct and novel transaction structures in cross-border insurance acquisition transactions.
We believe that our in-depth industry and regulatory knowledge is critical in effectively representing participants in these transactions. Our deep understanding of the nuances of insurance holding company systems regulation and related affiliation issues allows us to properly address unique issues applicable to investments in insurance companies, particularly by private equity, hedge fund and other institutional investors. In addition, we are able to leverage our strengths in other areas of our practice such as insurance corporate finance, insurance securitization and run-off management to employ innovative financing and structuring techniques in insurance industry acquisition transactions for our clients.