August 16, 2013
Willkie represents Lancashire Holdings Limited, a UK and Bermuda specialist insurer, in both the pending acquisition and the completed equity placing.
On August 7, Lancashire Holdings Limited announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire Cathedral Capital Limited, a privately owned integrated Lloyd’s vehicle. Under the agreement, Lancashire will pay £266 million for the entire issued share capital and loan notes of Cathedral.
Lancashire Group, a global provider of specialty insurance and reinsurance products, will acquire Cathedral from Alchemy Partners and management shareholders, using both its available cash and the proceeds of a share placing.
On August 12, Lancashire successfully completed the equity placing and issued 16,843,382 common shares, representing approximately 9.99% of its existing share capital.
The Cathedral deal will give Lancashire a platform at Lloyd’s of London, the world’s leading specialist insurance market. Specifically, Lancashire will gain Cathedral Underwriting Limited, a managing agency which manages two Lloyd’s syndicates, Cathedral Syndicates 2010 and 3010. Cathedral operates exclusively in the Lloyd’s insurance market and writes specialty insurance and reinsurance business in property, direct and facultative, aviation, satellite, marine cargo and contingency classes of business.
Lancashire Group is a UK and Bermuda specialist insurer and reinsurer focusing on property, energy, marine, aviation and terrorism/political risk classes of business. Willkie represented Lancashire in both the acquisition and the equity placing.
The Willkie deal team was led by partner Joseph Ferraro and included UK partners Judith Harger and Nicholas Bugler.
