Phoenix To Sell PFG Unit
January 7, 2010 by Trevor Thomas
Tiptree Financial Partners L.P. has agreed to buy the private placement insurance arm of Phoenix Companies Inc., Phoenix says.
The deal for the unit, PFG Holdings Inc., includes 2 PFG subsidiaries: Philadelphia Financial Group Inc. and AGL Life Assurance Company.
Phoenix, Hartford, (NYSE:PNX) and Tiptree, New York, an investment company that invests in credit-related assets, are not saying how much Tiptree is paying for PFG.
Phoenix says it expects the deal to close by June.
The managers who now run PFG will stay with PFG, Phoenix says.
PFG Holdings Inc. was founded in 1996. It develops and administers private placement insurance and annuity structures for ultra-high net worth and institutional clients.
The proposed sale is part of Phoenix’s efforts “to focus on the markets and products where we have the greatest potential for sustainable growth in addition to strengthening our capital position,” Phoenix President James Wehr says.
Tiptree is controlled by Tricadia Capital Management L.L.C., New York, a company founded by UBS veteran Michael Barnes. Tiptree acquires “performing and distressed credit assets and related equity interests, including broadly syndicated and middle-market corporate leveraged loans, mezzanine debt, unsecured debt, synthetic credit default swaps, synthetic credit indexes and tranches from synthetic credit indexes, consumer-related debt and structured debt, such as asset-backed securities and collateralized debt obligations,” according to a document that Tiptree filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in March 2008.
Tiptree Financial Partners L.P. has agreed to buy the private placement insurance arm of Phoenix Companies Inc., Phoenix says.
The deal for the unit, PFG Holdings Inc., includes 2 PFG subsidiaries: Philadelphia Financial Group Inc. and AGL Life Assurance Company.
Phoenix, Hartford, (NYSE:PNX) and Tiptree, New York, an investment company that invests in credit-related assets, are not saying how much Tiptree is paying for PFG.
Phoenix says it expects the deal to close by June.
The managers who now run PFG will stay with PFG, Phoenix says.
PFG Holdings Inc. was founded in 1996. It develops and administers private placement insurance and annuity structures for ultra-high net worth and institutional clients.
The proposed sale is part of Phoenix’s efforts “to focus on the markets and products where we have the greatest potential for sustainable growth in addition to strengthening our capital position,” Phoenix President James Wehr says.
Tiptree is controlled by Tricadia Capital Management L.L.C., New York, a company founded by UBS veteran Michael Barnes. Tiptree acquires “performing and distressed credit assets and related equity interests, including broadly syndicated and middle-market corporate leveraged loans, mezzanine debt, unsecured debt, synthetic credit default swaps, synthetic credit indexes and tranches from synthetic credit indexes, consumer-related debt and structured debt, such as asset-backed securities and collateralized debt obligations,” according to a document that Tiptree filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in March 2008.
