Crum & Forster Sale Announced

Crum & Forster, Ranger Insurance, Skandia, Compagnie Transcontinentale de Reassurance (CTR), Sphere Drake, Odyssey Re. They're fairly common names in the insurance business. And a common thread joins them all: Fairfax Financial Holdings, their parent company. Crum & Forster is the latest to join the Fairfax group, in an agreement of sale announced today by Xerox, C&F's parent.

Under terms of the agreement, Fairfax will acquire the stock of Crum & Forster Holdings Inc. for total consideration of $680 million, including the repayment of $115 million of debt. Xerox will incur approximately $75 million in transaction-related costs. The transaction, expected to close by the third quarter, is subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approval.

Crum & Forster is a national provider of commercial property and casualty insurance through a limited number of preferred independent agents and brokers. It is based in Morristown, NJ, and has about 1,650 employees in 21 U.S. locations. No Fairfax Financial spokesperson was immediately available to tell PropertyAndCasualty.com what impact the change of ownership might have on people or operations. C&F had 1997 net written premiums of $939 million.

In December 1997, Fairfax completed its acquisition of Sphere Drake, which operates as part of Fairfax's Odyssey Re Group. This year, Fairfax has expanded into Hong Kong through acquisition, and has announced it will purchase Skandia International Insurance Corporation of Sweden and Skandia UK Insurance plc of England. The business of these companies consists of reinsurance run-off operations, following SIIC's agreement in September 1997 to dispose of a significant portion of its business to companies within the Hannover Re group of Germany.

Other Fairfax Holdings include Canadian insurers Commonwealth, Federated, Lombard and Markel, as well as Ranger Insurance, based in Houston, TX. CRC (Bermuda) Reinsurance, Odyssey Reinsurance (formerly Skandia America Reinsurance,) CTR, and Barbados-domiciled Wentworth Insurance also are part of the Fairfax group, as is Lindsey Morden Group, a claims adjusting, appraisal and loss management service provider.

All pending Fairfax acquisitions are subject to appropriate regulatory approvals.