Business Moves – Southeast

Gallagher, Whitehaven

Illinois-based global insurance broker Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. has acquired Whitehaven Insurance Group, Inc. in Gulf Shores, Alabama.

Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Founded in 1994, Whitehaven Insurance Group is a retail insurance broker offering personal and commercial property/casualty insurance throughout the Southeastern United States. The agency specializes in high risk coastal properties for condominium associations and private homes.

Bruce Q. White, Jr., Debra Gibson, Scott Harris and their associates will continue to operate in their Gulf Shores location under the direction of Mitchel Brashier, Southeastern regional manager of Gallagher’s retail property/casualty brokerage operations.

Goldman Sachs, USI

Goldman Sachs Capital Partners may be looking to sell off USI Holdings, according to a media report.

The Deal Pipeline, a mergers-and-acquisitions publication — citing anonymous sources — said that Goldman Sachs Capital Partners is looking to divest the broker and an auction process is now getting underway.

Goldman Sachs’s private equity unit had purchased USI Holdings back in 2007, in a transaction valued at $1.4 billion, including repayment of USI’s existing debt obligations.

Headquartered in Briarcliff Manor, N.Y., USI sells property/casualty and employee benefits products to small- and mid-sized businesses in 25 states.

Keystone Insurers , Turner

Keystone Insurers Group has added Brunswick, Ga.-based agency Turner & Associates Insurance as its second franchise in the state. Turner joins more than 235 partners in eight states.

The announcement was made by Turner & Associates President Robbie Turner and Keystone’s Vice President of Sales Elizabeth Schenk.

Turner & Associates has been serving southeast Georgia since 1950 when Albert Shelander formed the agency. Robert Turner joined the agency in 1985 and was later able to purchase the agency in 2003 and form Turner & Associates Insurance. In January of 2011, the agency joined forces with Arthur Pittman & Co. Insurance of St. Simons Island, Ga.

Keystone, headquartered in Northumberland, Pa., is owned by its franchise partners and employees in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Virginia, Indiana and Ohio. In addition, KIG conducts business in Kentucky, Tennessee and Georgia. Each partner is an independent agency. It reports property/casualty premiums exceeding $1.7 billion and is ranked fifth on Insurance Journal’s 2011 list of Top 100 Privately-Held Property/Casualty Agencies.

Lexon, Peninsular Surety

Lexon Insurance Co. in Hermitage, Tennessee, has agreed to a acquire all shares of Peninsular Surety Co. in Naples, Fla. Pending regulatory approval by Florida, Peninsular will become a wholly owned indirect subsidiary of Lexon, a privately held company specializing in surety bonds.

Lexon President and CEO David Campbell said the acquisition provides immediate entrance into the Florida bail bond market. “In addition, from a portfolio perspective, the existing operations provide a good yield on our investment,” he said.

Andrew Renshaw, Lexon’s vice president of bail and immigration, will serve as incoming president of Peninsular. Renshaw, along with Tom Dieruf, chairman; Peter Balistrieri, vice president and general counsel; P. Gregory Lauer, treasurer/secretary and Matthew Semeraro will serve as directors.

Hylant, AGIS

Toledo, Ohio-based privately owned insurance brokerage firm, Hylant Group, has acquired AGIS, an independent employee benefits agency with offices in Birmingham, Mich., and Orlando and Jacksonville, Fla.

The combined operations expand Hylant’s footprint into Florida.

In 2011, Hylant acquired AGIS’s Indianapolis office under the employee benefits leadership of Dave Norris.

The Florida offices will be led by industry veterans Andria Herr in Orlando and Mark Nixon in Jacksonville.

The Birmingham, Mich. office, led by Mike Nixon, will transition to Hylant’s Detroit office. Hylant’s expanding Southeast Michigan operation includes Ann Arbor Metropolitan, Detroit and Grand Rapids.

Hylant has offices in Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Tennessee and Florida.

Southport Lane, Redwood Re

Southport Lane, a New York-based private equity firm, has acquired Redwood Reinsurance SPC, Ltd., a Cayman Islands-based reinsurer that provides treaty reinsurance for workers compensation and general liability insurance in the U.S. Terms were not disclosed.

In May, Southport, through its subsidiary Lonestar Holdco, agreed to acquire 100 percent of Dallas National Insurance Co.