Alabama Co. BUYS TX Agencies

Vesta Insurance Group Inc., a Birmingham, Ala.-based holding company for insurance and financial service providers, announced that its Instant Insurance Holdings Inc. subsidiary has acquired two non-standard auto insurance wholesalers in Dallas, increasing the company’s annualized non-standard premium to more than $250 million. Vesta’s subsidiary bought the stock of Old American Investments Inc., a holding company for three managing general agencies, and acquired the assets of Harbor Insurance Group Inc.’s non-standard auto business. The two agencies are expected to generate about $70 million in non-standard auto premium in 2002. Terms of the transactions were not disclosed. Other companies acquired by Vesta recently include the Spacecoast agencies in Florida, the A-Affordable Insurance agency in Texas, and InsureOne in the Midwest.