Aquarian Agrees to Acquire Pavonia Life of New York: Deals

Brent DePeppe, the CEO of SeniorCare Benefits,, will become a managing partner with Integrity Marketing, according to the firm.

Nationwide Refuels Venture Capital Fund

Nationwide said its venture capital investment fund now has a total value of $350 million, up from $100 million in 2017.

The Columbus, Ohio-based mutual insurer says it will continue to focus its investments on insurance technology and financial technology startups in six fields.

Four of the fields relate to property and casualty insurance, and a fifth involves “digital infrastructure,” or startups with an interest in insurance underwriting, data analytics and other products and services that make insurance machinery run.

The sixth field is “living in retirement,” including any products and services that “help consumers prepare for and live better in their next stage of life.”

Bain Sizes Up Insurance Deals

Analysts at Bain & Co. Inc. say the world’s insurers have been focusing more on selling unwanted operations in the past five years than on whole-company deals.

The Boston-based investment firm included the insurance mergers and acquisitions review in a new collection of M&A reports released Tuesday.

Only about 33% of the world insurance deals with a value over $1 billion that the analysts recorded in 2020 involved one company acquiring or merging with another whole company, the analysts found.

The other 67% of the 2020 deals, and about 70% of the big deals recorded since 2016, involved insurers disposing of non-core operations, the analysts write.

“Pressure on profit pools from low rates as well as increasingly complex capital requirements have forced them to take a more critical look at the ability of their business units to create sustainable value,” the analysts write.

Many insurers are buying more of the same kinds of operations they already have and value, the analysts write.

“Private equity firms,” or companies that buy stock in privately held companies, have been getting a great deal of attention as insurance business buyers.

Private equity investment accounted for a much bigger share of world insurance M&A deal volume in 2020 than in 2010, but it still accounted for just 14% of 2020 world insurance M&A deal volume, the analysts write.

“We expect private equity investors will continue to pursue capital-light businesses such as brokerages and tech providers as well as increase their appetite for runoff and core insurance businesses in which they can apply their investment expertise and their risk appetite, which generally is higher than more traditional player,” the analysts write.