USI Acquires Kinloch’s New Jersey Operation

New York-based Kinloch Holdings has sold its New Jersey-based insurance brokerage operation to USI Holdings Corp.

Terms of the transaction between the two middle market insurance brokerage firms were not disclosed.

USI said it expects Kinloch's West Orange, N.J.-based operation to annually generate approximately $5.1 million. That Kinloch operation specializes in the middle market segment for commercial property/casualty and employee benefits.

USI Chairman Michael Sicard said in a statement that combining the two operations will make USI one of the largest middle-market insurance brokerage firms in New Jersey.

Kinloch Chairman Richard Brown described the sale as mutually beneficial because both had been operating below scale in that market.

"It provides Kinloch with a fair price," Brown remarked in a statement.

Brown said it would allow Kinloch to focus on Genatt Associates Inc., its Long Island, N.Y.-based property/casualty franchise, as well as the core employee benefits program that has operations in Long Island and Boston.

Founded in 1994, USI Holdings Corp. focuses on employee benefits, financial products and property/casualty insurance in the United States. The company has more than 3,000 employees in 77 offices in 24 states.

The company was ranked as the 12th-largest insurance broker by 2009 total revenue by Best's Review (Best's Review, July 2010).

(By Al Slavin, senior associate editor, BestWeek)