Markel Corporation has completed its acquisition of Alterra Capital Holdings Limited. The closing follows receipt of all necessary regulatory approvals and votes in favor of the transaction by the shareholders of the two companies in February.
Alan I. Kirshner, Markel's chairman and chief executive officer, commented: “As we have said from the outset, we believe the combination of Alterra with Markel will create a strong company in global specialty insurance and investments, with a demonstrated track record of underwriting discipline in niche market segments and proven asset management strengths that should benefit all our stakeholders.
“Over the past 83 years, Markel has built its financial and operating platform on a foundation of talented associates. We welcome the Alterra underwriting, claims and support teams, who will expand our product offerings as well as our geographic reach. With that greater underwriting depth and our enhanced financial scale, we are confident we will better serve our customers.
“We will be adding two new businesses for us, Markel Global Insurance (large commercial accounts) and Markel Global Reinsurance. They will join our existing Markel Specialty, Markel Wholesale, and Markel International units. We are committed to all these businesses, which we believe fit well with our disciplined underwriting approach, on a worldwide basis.
“Markel and Alterra teams have been working diligently on integration and transition efforts in preparation for today. For our broker and client partners this should be a seamless transition—the people you dealt with yesterday are the people you will deal with today. We look forward to giving our customers the same service to which they've become accustomed—'scale enhanced, business as usual.'
“With our enhanced scale, approximately $23 billion in combined assets and $6 billion in shareholders' equity, we believe we will be well positioned to take advantage of a wide range of profitable opportunities in insurance and investments.”
Victoria Spears
Victoria Prussen Spears is senior vice president of Meyerowitz Communications Inc., a law firm marketing communications consulting company. A graduate of Sarah Lawrence College and Brooklyn Law School, Ms. Spears was an attorney at a leading New York City law firm before joining Meyerowitz Communications. She may be contacted at [email protected].