Applied Underwriters has announced that it will acquire Catlin Specialty Insurance Company from the AXA XL group of companies.

The move will consolidate Catlin into the North American Casualty group of companies in a move intended to bolster Applied’s operating capabilities in support of its strategic partners as the E&S market hardens.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The transaction is scheduled to close during the second quarter as anticipated regulatory approvals are received.

“Applied has consistently executed our commitment to sustaining and growing our national platform for E&S business and to intensifying our relationships with our strategic partners with whom we have impacted the sector. This is an important development for us and for our partners in the E&S market,” said Jamie Sahara, president of Applied Underwriters.

The structure for the transaction drew upon a business transfer process used in Oklahoma based upon the successful Part VII transfer procedure used in the UK and the EU, said Steve Menzies, chairman of Applied Underwriters.

“We found great potential in the Oklahoma Insurance Business Transfer (IBT) Act’s regulatory process and its regulators’ application of it,” he said. “Uniquely, the IBT process permits insurers the ability to effect the absolute transfer of blocks of insurance business from one insurer to another, providing both the transferring and assuming companies an efficient, transparent and straightforward process while also realizing a legal finality. Our deal was complex, and the Oklahoma regulatory format really helped facilitate this.”

Catlin Specialty Insurance Company is licensed as an E&S carrier in all states except Oklahoma where it will be domiciled and where it holds many surplus lines authorizations, Menzies said.

“Applied and AXA XL worked with Delaware and Oklahoma regulators to redomesticate Catlin from Delaware to Oklahoma, so that Oklahoma’s IBT process could be used,” Menzies added. “We thank the regulators involved in these states in acting to benefit the sector and, ultimately, the clients we serve.”

Formed in the 1950s, Catlin Specialty Insurance Company was the subject of a series of transactions that culminated in its acquisition in 2006 by Catlin Group Limited. In 2015, the company became part of what is now AXA XL.