Bank of America's announcement that it plans to explore"strategic alternatives" for its brokerage business could beanother opportunity for private equity funds to step into theinsurance business, a consultant said.

Yesterday, Charlotte, N.C.-based Bank of America said it hasretained Banc of America Securities to explore alternatives for itscommercial insurance brokerage business, Banc of America CorporateInsurance Agency LLC, based in Cranford, N.J.

A spokeswoman for the bank said the company would make noadditional comments on the move. She noted that the move did notinvolve its personal lines insurance business.

Robert J. Lieblein, president and chief executive officer of WFGCapital Advisors in Harrisburg, Pa., said the move marked astrategic initiative by the bank to divest itself of the commercialproperty-casualty operations that are not a core strategy of thebank.

Bank of America got into the insurance brokerage businessthrough acquisitions of other banks that had insurance operations,Mr. Lieblein noted.

Patrick Linnert, executive vice president with Marsh, Berry& Company Inc., said that compared to Bank of America's overallsize, the revenue coming from the insurance business wasminiscule.

According to the company's Securities and Exchange Commissionfiling for 2006, the bank's revenue stood at $73 billion, with netincome of $21 billion. The two consultants estimated revenues fromthe insurance portion of the business stood at $80 million orless.

"When the bank's executives looked at this to determine what itwill take to make this business grow, they saw a sizable capitalinvestment was needed and decided it was best if that was donesomewhere else," said Mr. Lieblein.

As for a buyer, Mr. Linnert would not venture to speculate whothat would be, or what the price might be, but Mr. Lieblein didsuggest that a private equity firm would be the most likely buyer,or possibly a brokerage entity with the help of private equitymoney.

Mr. Linnert suggested that a sale might involve retaining somestrategic alignment with Bank of America, allowing insurance tocontinue to be sold to Bank of America customers.

Another bank would probably be the least likely buyer, theysuggested, due to competitive concerns.

For the sale price, Mr. Lieblein suggested that the Banc ofAmerica Corporate Insurance Agency could sell for somewhere around$150 million, but Mr. Linnert said that knowing what the pricecould be is difficult without knowing the true nature of theagency's pro forma EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes,depreciation and amortization).

According to company press releases, Banc of America CorporateInsurance Agency handles $1 billion in premiums with more than 300associates. The division handles more than 10,000 commercialclients in the Unites States and worldwide.