CBL buys 40% stake in Irish professional insurer Allied Risk

CBL buys 40% stake in Irish professional insurer Allied Risk for 1.38M euros

By Paul McBeth

July 10 (BusinessDesk) - CBL Corp has continued its acquisition spree of recent years with the purchase of a 40 percent stake in Allied Risk Holdings for 1.38 million euros, and will use the Irish professional insurer's senior management to populate its own European executive team.

Auckland-based credit surety and financial risk insurer CBL announced the acquisition and appointments today, adding Dublin-based Allied and its 2.3 million euros of annual billings to the expanding New Zealand group. As part of the deal, Allied executive chairman Larry Sherin will head up CBL's European insurance team, with Neal Lamont as financial controller and Ronan Ryan as chief operating officer.

"Acquiring this senior executive team gives us more dedicated resource and expertise on the ground in our important European markets, and it follows on the heels of our recent appointment of Mark Christer as CBL's CEO of Europe," managing director Peter Harris said in a statement.

Almost three-quarters of CBL's gross written premiums came from its European businesses in calendar 2016, and the company beefed up its presence in the region with the acquisitions of UK tax investigation insurance provider Professional Fee Protection, and France's largest specialist producer of construction-sector insurance Securities and Financial Solutions Europe SA.

CBL's current head of the European insurance arm, Brendan Malley, will take a part-time claims management role with the company, and the senior management reshuffle will also see Auckland-based Oliver Doyle transfer to take up the chief information officer role.

The insurer's shares rose 1.5 percent to $3.35 after the announcement, having dropped 9.1 percent so far this year.

(BusinessDesk)

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