Brit is an international general insurance and reinsurance group specialising in commercial insurance. It was acquired by Fairfax Financial in May 2015.

History

The Company was founded as ''Benfield & Rea Investment Trust'' in 1995.Brit Insurance History
/ref> 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''. Achilles Netherlands Holdings B.V., a company formed by funds managed by

private equity Private equity (PE) is stock in a private company that does not offer stock to the general public; instead it is offered to specialized investment funds and limited partnerships that take an active role in the management and structuring of the co ...

firms Apollo Management and CVC Capital Partners, 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. On 18 June 2012 Brit announced the sale of its subsidiary Brit Insurance Limited (BIL) to RiverStone Group. The company was subject to an

initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investm ...

in March 2014. The company was acquired by Fairfax Financial in May 2015.

Operations

Brit has a diversified portfolio of businesses both in terms of geographic location and types of business. Business is written through Lloyd's Syndicate 2987.

References

{{reflist

External links

Official site
Insurance companies of the United Kingdom Companies based in the City of London Financial services companies established in 1995 2015 mergers and acquisitions Fairfax Media CVC Capital Partners companies