Business Moves

CRC Insurance, TAPCO Underwriters

CRC Insurance Services Inc., the wholesale insurance subsidiary of BB&T Corp. principal subsidiary Branch Banking and Trust Co., plans to acquire TAPCO Underwriters Inc. The transaction was to be completed Dec. 31.

Terms were not disclosed. TAPCO will operate as a division of CRC managing general agency, Southern Cross Underwriters.

Burlington, N.C.-based TAPCO Underwriters is a managing general agency specializing in high-volume, middle-market excess and surplus insurance lines. The 25-year-old company also operates regional offices in Clearwater, Fla., and Manassas, Va.

Birmingham, Ala.-based CRC, with approximately $3 billion in premiums in 2007, says it is the largest wholesale property and casualty insurance broker in the nation.

TAPCO uses a proprietary underwriting technology model and call center to quote and bind a high volume of business on the phone in five minutes or less. TAPCO reported that last year placing more than $200 million in premiums.

Munich Re, Hartford Steam Boiler

Munich Re has agreed to acquire specialty insurer Hartford Steam Boiler (HSB) Group from American International Group for $747 million in cash. Munich Re said it would finance the purchase price from internal resources. Completion of the transaction is subject to regulatory approval, which is expected to be completed at the end of the first quarter of 2009.

AIG acquired HSB as a wholly owned subsidiary in 2000 for approximately $1.2 billion. In 2007, HSB posted an after-tax profit of $158 million and the company’s average combined ratio since 2003 has been 73.8 percent. The gross written premium income of HSB Group in 2007 amounted to $904 million.

The main unit within HSB Group is Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Co., which specializes in machinery and plant and equipment breakdown insurance, inspection, certification and engineering consulting services.

Munich Re said the acquisition is a further step in its strategy to grow in the U.S. insurance market, decided on last year. HSB Group’s President and CEO Douglas G. Elliot and his senior management team will remain with HSB

Brown & Brown

Florida-based insurance giant Brown & Brown Inc. went on a buying spree in the final weeks of the year in purchasing, among others, Gallagher Associates in Blackwood, New Jersey. Gallagher Associates, with revenues of $2 million, sells property/ casualty insurance in the southern New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware region.

Brown & Brown also purchased Baker, Thomsen Associates Insurance Services of Newport Beach, Calif.; Insurance 1 Inc. and Alexander & Bolton Inc., of Alexandria, La.; and Charter Insurance Services, Inc. of Albuquerque, New Mexico, which has property/casualty revenue of $1.1 million.

Ironshore, Marine Re

Bermuda-based Ironshore Inc. has acquired the assets of Marine Re Inc. The company said the current management and staff will be retained, Marine Re is currently in its ninth year of operation as a marine reinsurance market in North America. During 2008 it underwrote gross premium income of $35 million.

FTC: CCC Information, Mitchell

The Federal Trade Commission has filed suit to block the merger of CCC Information Services Inc. and Mitchell International Inc., charging that the merger would hinder competition in the market for electronic systems used to estimate the cost of collision repairs, known as “estimatics,” and the market for software systems used to value passenger vehicles that have been totaled, known as total loss valuation systems. The FTC alleges that the merger, which is valued at $1.4 billion, would harm insurers, repair shops and, ultimately, U.S. car owners by reducing from three to two the number of competitors in the two related businesses.