Insurance mergers and acquisitions often provide signs pointing to the direction where the industry is heading. Reading the signs today reveals a strong foreign element. In 2014 there has been a flurry of cross-border deals on an otherwise relatively quiet M&A landscape.
Executive Summary
As the U.S. P/C insurance market wrestles with the challenges of low interest rates, anemic economic growth and red-hot competition in most product lines, many forward-minded insurers and brokers are capitalizing on cross-border M&A opportunities.M&A activity by U.S. property/casualty insurers has been relatively subdued in recent years. In 2013 there was $4.4 billion in aggregate announced deal value in 39 transactions involving a U.S. P/C company as buyer or seller. This compares with the long-term (20 year) average of 61 transactions and $14.9 billion in annual aggregate announced value. The low level of 2013 activity was on par with that in 2012, when there was $4.7 billion of aggregate announced value in 46 transactions.
