White Mountains Completes Its Purchase of Sirius

White Mountains Completes Its Purchase of Sirius

NU Online News Service, April 19, 1:45 p.m. EDT?Bermuda-based insurer White Mountains Insurance Group said it has completed its previously reported purchase of Sirius Insurance Group, a Swedish insurance and reinsurance unit of Zurich, Switzerland-based manufacturing giant ABB Ltd.[@@]

The purchase, first announced last December, is reported to have cost $425 million. Sirius employs some 200 workers at its three major units: Sweden-based Sirius International, Sirius America and Scandinavian Reinsurance.

White Mountains' chief executive Ray Barrette, commenting on the latest acquisition, had said the purchase of Sirius "leverages all the strengths of the White Mountains organization."

"We are adding a nice business to our family of property-casualty insurance and reinsurance companies," Mr. Barrette said, "and the transaction adds significant value for our shareholders."

Another benefit of bringing Sirius into the White Mountain group of companies, according to Mr. Barrette, is that Sirius has been focusing on property and other short-tailed lines of business, "allowing them to avoid most of the legacy issues that other international reinsurance companies are facing today."

For 2003, White Mountains reported net income of $281 million, compared with $748 million in 2002. Revenues for 2003 were reported at some $3.8 billion, compared with $4.2 billion posted during 2002.