Brit Insurance Holdings B.V. is an international general insurance and reinsurance group specialising in commercial insurance. It is privately owned by Achilles, a consortium of two private equity companies, Apollo Management and CVC Capital Partners. Previously, Brit Insurance was a public company, listed on the London Stock Exchange.

History

The Company was founded as Benfield & Rea Investment Trust in 1995. In 1996 it acquired Stewart Syndicates Limited and in 1999 it went on to buy Wren PLC. In 1999 it ceased to be an investment trust and relisted as Brit Insurance Holdings PLC. In 2007 it was included, for the first time, in the FTSE4Good Index

FTSE4Good Index

The FTSE4Good Index series is a series of ethical investment stock market indices launched in 2001 by the FTSE Group. A number of stock market indices are available, for example covering UK shares, US shares, European markets, and Japan, with inclusion based on a range of corporate social...

. In 2009, Brit Insurance Holdings N.V. became the new holding company of the Group. The company is incorporated in the Netherlands, and listed in the UK.

Achilles Netherlands Holdings B.V., a company formed by funds managed by private equity

Private equity

Private equity, in finance, is an asset class consisting of equity securities in operating companies that are not publicly traded on a stock exchange....

 firms Apollo Management

Apollo Management

Apollo Global Management, LLC is a private equity investment firm, founded in 1990 by former Drexel Burnham Lambert banker Leon Black. The firm specializes in leveraged buyout transactions and purchases of distressed securities involving corporate restructuring, special situations and industry...

 and CVC Capital Partners

CVC Capital Partners

CVC Capital Partners is one of the top five largest private equity firms globally with approximately US$46 billion in funds focused on management buyouts...

, agreed to acquire the firm for £888 million in October 2010. Its offer was declared unconditional in March 2011 and following this Brit Insurance was removed from the FTSE 250 Index.

Operations

Brit Insurance has a diversified portfolio of businesses both in terms of geographic location and types of business. Business is written through two underwriting platforms - Brit Insurance Limited and Lloyd's Syndicate 2987. The Group has a wholly owned intra-group reinsurer, Brit Insurance (Gibraltar) PPC Limited, which is licensed and regulated by the Gibraltar Financial Services Commission.

The company is split into three Strategic Business Units - Global Markets, Reinsurance and UK.

Nine UK Regional offices in Birmingham

Birmingham

Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...

, Bristol

Bristol

Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...

, Darlington

Darlington

Darlington is a market town in the Borough of Darlington, part of the ceremonial county of County Durham, England. It lies on the small River Skerne, a tributary of the River Tees, not far from the main river. It is the main population centre in the borough, with a population of 97,838 as of 2001...

, Glasgow

Glasgow

Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...

, London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, Reading

Reading, Berkshire

Reading is a large town and unitary authority area in England. It is located in the Thames Valley at the confluence of the River Thames and River Kennet, and on both the Great Western Main Line railway and the M4 motorway, some west of London....

, Leeds

Leeds

Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...

, Manchester

Manchester

Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...

 and Belfast

Belfast

Belfast is the capital of and largest city in Northern Ireland. By population, it is the 14th biggest city in the United Kingdom and second biggest on the island of Ireland . It is the seat of the devolved government and legislative Northern Ireland Assembly...

 have been opened to support brokers throughout the country. The group has overseas operations in Chicago, USA, Sydney, Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

 & Tokyo, Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

.

Sponsorship

Brit Insurance is the principal sponsor of the England Cricket teams, a four-year deal that began in January 2010. In 2010 Brit Insurance became principal partner of the “Chance to Shine

Chance to Shine

Chance to Shine is a 10-year programme run by the charitable Cricket Foundation to encourage competitive cricket in state schools in the UK.Devised and implemented by former cricketer Nick Gandon, it launched with pilot programmes launched in March 2005 - immediately before the 2005 Ashes series -...

” campaign, including the Brit Insurance National Cricket Day and the Brit Insurance Annual Achievement Awards.