Business Moves – Midwest

Atlas

Atlas Financial Holdings Inc. has started selling its core commercial automobile insurance products in Utah, becoming the 31st state where Atlas is actively underwriting.

Atlas’ insurance subsidiaries, American Country Insurance Co. and American Service Insurance Co., Inc., distribute their specialty insurance products focused on “light” commercial auto industries (taxi cabs, non-emergency paratransit, limousine/livery and business auto) through a network of retail independent agents. Together, American Country and American Service are licensed to write property and casualty insurance in 47 states throughout the United States.

During 2011, Atlas expanded its core commercial automobile insurance product offering in a total of 10 additional states, with another seven states added in 2012. With the addition of Utah, Atlas is now actively underwriting in 31 states across the U.S. and views this as the primary near-term distribution footprint.

While Atlas may continue to expand into new states in the future, it now will begin to transition from geographic expansion to a vertical growth strategy as it enters the second half of 2012, with an emphasis on generating more business from existing agents.

Ebix, PlanetSoft

Atlanta-based insurance software and e-commerce supplier Ebix said it has agreed to buy life insurance and annuity services provider PlanetSoft Inc. for $40 million.

Ebix said the acquisition is expected to be immediately accretive to earnings per share (EPS).

PlanetSoft has been in business 14 years offering data exchanges that streamline core life insurance operations in the areas of client acquisition, underwriting, and distribution management.

The firm currently has 575 employees — 90 percent of them in India — and serves some of the top 20 life insurance companies in the United States and India including Swiss Re, MassMutual, Liberty Mutual, Manulife Financial, Sun Life Financial, Desjardins and New York Max Life, according to the announcement.

Ebix said it has acquired all of the outstanding capital stock of PlanetSoft for $35 million in cash at closing, and $5 million payable in the form of 297,265 shares of the common stock of Ebix issued at the time of closing.

The deal will also involve earn-out cash payments to PlanetSoft shareholders based on specific revenue numbers achieved in the next 24 months.

Ebix said it is funding the purchase using a mix of internal cash reserves and the bank credit line available to Ebix at Libor plus 1.5 percent.

Ebix has offices across Brazil, Singapore, Australia, the United States, New Zealand, India and Canada. It offers multiple exchanges across the world in the fields of life, annuity, health and property/ casualty insurance. According to Ebix, it platforms handle in excess of $100 billion in insurance premiums.

Towers Watson

Towers Watson, a global professional services company, has launched the Chief Risk Officer (CRO) Network, a knowledge-sharing network dedicated exclusively to senior risk officers of life, health and property and casualty insurers with significant operations in North America. The CRO Network will provide an ongoing series of events, including conferences, webcasts, and networking opportunities.

The principal benefits for members of the CRO Network include:

• Peer Networking- Access to colleagues at peer life, health and property and casualty insurers to develop relationships, exchange ideas, discuss ERM challenges and approaches, and share lessons learned
• Expert Access-Access to industry CROs and industry experts to discuss emerging best practices that help insurers operationalize new processes and maximize ERM value within their organizations
• Topical ERM Issues- Insights into current ERM topics and issues that are prioritized by member companies and provided during the CRO Network series of educational events

The CRO Network is open to CROs and executives with risk management leadership responsibilities at life, health and property and casualty insurance groups with significant operations located in the United States, Bermuda and Canada.

There is no cost to join the CRO Network.