Odyssey Investment Partners, LLC said it has agreed to acquire Parsippany, N.J.-based York Insurance Services Group Inc., an outsourcer of specialty claims management to niche market segments of the property-casualty insurance industry throughout the United States.
Odyssey is a New York-based middle-market private equity fund with more than $1.2 billion under management.
Thomas Winmill, president and chief executive officer of Bexil Corp.–the holding company for York Insurance Services–said the sale involved $39 million in cash. Odyssey said the total transaction value–including the assumption of debt, rollover shares and management investment–would be approximately $105 million.
Odyssey's partners in this transaction are Thomas C. MacArthur, York's chairman and chief executive officer, other members of senior management, as well as Ward Partners LLC, a Cincinnati-based advisory firm specializing in the insurance services industry.
Odyssey said it also plans to form Odyssey Insurance Services, a partnership between Odyssey and Ward Partners to evaluate, structure and make co-investments in insurance services companies. The acquisition of York will be Odyssey's first investment in partnership with Odyssey Insurance Services.
Following completion of the transaction, Mr. MacArthur will remain in his current position at York, and John L. Ward, CEO of Ward Partners, will become vice chairman.
Completion of the transaction is expected to occur during the first quarter of 2006.
"We identified the outsourcing of insurance services as an attractive area for investment a few years ago and have been actively targeting this growing sector," said Douglas Rotatori, a managing principal of Odyssey. "We are pleased to formally begin this investment initiative with the acquisition of York."
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