Hamilton Insurance Group Ltd named former Citigroup Inc head Sanford "Sandy" Weill as Chairman of the Board, Bloomberg reported. Hamilton Insurance Group runs that reinsurer that SAC Capital Advisors founder Steven A. Cohen had exited.
Hamilton Chief Executive Officer Brian Duperreault said in a statement, "Sandy Weill is an icon in the financial services sector. I have no doubt that our goal of establishing a leading insurance and reinsurance business will be realized."
The 80-year old Weill was instrumental in engineering the merger of insurer Travelers Group Inc and Citicorp in 1998 which ushered in the era of banking conglomerates in the US, the report said.
Last month, billionaire Cohen divested the reinsurer after his hedge fund arrived at a $1.8 billion deal to put an end to a criminal investigation about insider trading.
Duperreault is working with Two Sigma Investments at the reinsurer based in Bermuda. In a statement, Weill said, "Brian's teaming up with Two Sigma marries insurance expertise with an outstanding record of investment expertise, a combination that I believe will work well."
KBW Analyst Meyer Shields told Bloomberg that Weill would be able to help Duperreault if Hamilton would acquire other reinsurers. Shields said that the industry is getting more concentrated as firms want to do business with fewer reinsurance companies. In the phone interview, Shields said about Weill, "He's seen as a very shrewd acquirer. What it means is that deals are in the offing."
The statement said that as of December 31, Hamilton had around $800 million in capitalization. In a 2012 statement, the reinsurer, which was formerly known as SAC Re Ltd, gathered $500 million in a private placement from its founding investors which included Cohen and Capital Z Partners, a private equity fund.
Financial services consulting firm Michael White Associates President Michael White told Bloomberg that even if Weill is not an insurance expert, he will provide Hamilton with financial acumen and relationships.
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