Ryan Specialty Group Buys Specialty Underwriting Manager Focusing on Energy and Marine Business

Ryan Specialty Group, LLC said it has acquired Global Special Risks LLC, a company with a niche focus on energy and marine business in London and North America.

Terms of the agreement weren't disclosed.

Global Special Risks is a specialty underwriting manager from Willis North America Inc., a subsidiary of Willis Group Holdings (NYSE: WSH). Willis Capital Markets & Advisory was the financial adviser to Willis.

Global Special Risks was formed in 1979 as a London market coverholder, a managing general agency for Lloyd's and London companies. Its has created products specifically designed for energy and marine clients' needs, including well control, comprehensive general liability, excess liability, contractor's equipment, professional liability, business interruption, cargo, maritime employer's liability and more.

The company's areas of expertise is consistent with <org>Ryan Specialty Group's specialty insurance product offerings, making it a great fit for the company's specialty insurance market, a spokesman for RSG told Best's News Service. He added that Ryan Specialty Group also liked the talent and people at Global Special Risks.

The energy sector, in particular, is an area of great interest to Ryan Specialty Group.

In July, the company announced the launch of a new managing general underwriter to focus on renewable energy risks called Per Se, which stands for "Power.Energy.Risk." It was the company's first foray into the renewable energy sector, which it said was a booming market (Best's News Service, July 19, 2011).

In May, the company bought all of the share capital of Jubilee Group Holdings Ltd., a specialist Lloyd's insurer. At the time, the company said the deal was a strategically important acquisition because it would give Ryan Specialty Group access to the Lloyd's market and would represent a "key cornerstone" to its strategy of providing specialty expertise (Best's News Service, May 19, 2011).

And in February, the company said it planned to buy the whole insurance business of American E&S Insurance Brokers from Wells Fargo Insurance Services. The acquisition included substantially all of the operating assets and liabilities of AES, including offices in San Francisco, Fresno and Irvine, Calif., as well as New York, Denver, Atlanta, Nashville and Seattle (Best's News Service, Feb. 7, 2011).

Ryan Specialty Group believes specializing in a sector is the key to growing business. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Patrick Ryan told brokers at the Top Broker Summit in Toronto in October to become an expert in an industry. "To develop those sectors, you really have to have expertise in that industry," he said at the Summit (Best's News Service, Oct. 6, 2011).

On the afternoon of Jan. 5, Willis Group Holdings' stock was trading at $39.10 a share, up 1.35% from the previous close.

(By Marie Suszynski)