Business Moves – South Central

BenefitSpecialists, Higginbotham Insurance Group

Higginbotham Insurance Group and BenefitSpecialists announced the merger of their operations in Houston.

BenefitSpecialists, an employee benefits broker in Houston, will align capabilities with Higginbotham to offer a single source solution for insurance, risk management and employee benefits services.

BenefitSpecialists opened in 1988 to provide employee benefits brokerage and consulting to mid-sized employers in Houston.

Led by Bill Fisher, the firm will move in September from its location at 820 Gessner Road to Higginbotham’s office at 5151 San Felipe.

Higginbotham, founded in 1948 and headquartered in Fort Worth, provides comprehensive property/casualty insurance and financial services to business and individual customers. Combined with BenefitSpecialists, Higginbotham employs 520 insurance and administrative professionals in 17 offices across Texas.

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co., Professional Claims Managers

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. has acquired Professional Claims Managers Inc. in Dallas, Texas. Terms were not disclosed.

Formed in 1986, Professional Claims Managers (PCM) is a full service third party administrator that provides comprehensive claims and litigation management services to domestic and foreign clients involved in the business of underwriting and managing loss.

The firm specializes in complex programs such as healthcare liability, private detention liability, architects and engineers’ errors and omissions, construction liability, law enforcement and public officials liability and miscellaneous professional liability.

J. Brian Hobbs and his associates will continue to operate in their Dallas location under the direction of Robert E. Blasio, president of Western Litigation Inc., a division of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.’s retail property/casualty brokerage operation.

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co., an international insurance brokerage and risk management services firm, is headquartered in Itasca, Ill.

Hilltop Holdings, PlainsCapital Corp.

Hilltop Holdings Inc., a Dallas-based holding company that through a subsidiary provides fire and homeowners insurance to low value dwellings and manufactured homes, and Dallas-based PlainsCapital Corp., the financial services holding company for PlainsCapital Bank, PrimeLending and FirstSouthwest, have agreed to merge.

Under the terms of the agreement, PlainsCapital Corp. will become a subsidiary of Hilltop.

The purchase consideration to PlainsCapital common shareholders includes approximately 27.5 million shares of Hilltop common stock and $318 million of cash.

Each share of PlainsCapital common stock will be converted into the right to receive $9.00 in cash and 0.776 shares of Hilltop common stock.

Based on Hilltop’s closing market price of $7.96 as of May 8, 2012, this reflects a combined value of $15.18 per share for PlainsCapital Corp. common stock. The value of the stock consideration to be received in the merger will fluctuate based on the market share price of Hilltop common stock.

The merger is expected to be completed prior to the end of 2012.

As part of the agreement, PlainsCapital Corp. Chairman and CEO Alan B. White will become vice chairman of Hilltop and chairman of the executive committee for Hilltop. White will also retain his role as chairman and CEO of PlainsCapital Corp.

Gerald J. Ford will continue to serve as chairman of Hilltop’s board and Jeremy B. Ford will continue to serve as president and CEO of Hilltop.

Hilltop provides fire and homeowners insurance to low-value dwellings and manufactured homes primarily in Texas and other areas of the South through its wholly-owned property and casualty insurance subsidiary, NLASCO Inc.

Topics Texas Property Casualty A.J. Gallagher