The Briefcase The Briefcase

JAB Holdings

expands its

pet insurance

JAB Holdings, the parent company of Krispy Kreme Inc., said Monday its pet insurance division will pay about $1.4 billion for Crum & Forster Pet Insurance Group and Pethealth Inc. from Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd.

Fairfax will receive $1.15 billion in cash in the transaction, while it has agreed to invest $200 million in JCP V, JAB's latest consumer fund.

C&F Pet insures more than 500,000 pets and markets or serves as underwriter for numerous brands, including ASPCA Pet Health Insurance, 24Petprotect, Hartville Pet Insurance, Spot Insurance Services and Pumpkin Insurance Services.

It also insures PetCoach LLC, the provider of Petco pet insurance plans in the United States and Pets Plus Us in Canada. Pethealth provides well-being and safety solutions to shelters and pet parents under the 24Pet brand, which includes the 24Petwatch Registry with more than 20 million registered pets.

JAB said its combined global pet insurance and ecosystem platform will have gross written premiums and pet health services revenues of more than $1.2 billion by 2023, insuring more than 2.1 million pets.

In December, JAB closed on its Independence Pet Holdings insurance platform acquiring pet insurer Figo, which was made part of PetPartners, the consumer-facing portion of JAB's pet-insurance platform.

Richard Craver

Blue Rhino

expands home

delivery to Phoenix

Blue Rhino said last week it is expanding its home delivery services into the Phoenix market.

The propane company launched the home-delivery service in February in five markets that included Winston-Salem, where it has a major operational hub. It has since added Richmond, Va., among the now-18 markets.

The company, based in Overland Park, Kan., said customers can check their eligibility for delivery by going to www.BlueRhino.com/WeDeliver and putting in their ZIP code.

Customers have the option of exchanging an empty tank or receiving a tank without exchanging. Customers are required to indicate their type of residence and provide instructions on where to leave the fresh tank.

Richard Craver

JetBlue raises

offer in bidding

for Spirit Airlines

NEW YORK - JetBlue is boosting its offer to buy Spirit Airlines, raising the stakes again in the bidding war over the nation's biggest budget airline.

JetBlue said Monday that it offered $33.50 per share, or $2 per share more than its last bid two weeks ago.

JetBlue is trying to outbid Frontier Airlines, which struck a deal to buy Spirit back in February. Shareholders of Florida-based Spirit are scheduled to vote on the Frontier bid next week.

JetBlue is trying to convince investors to kill the Frontier offer and drive Spirit into JetBlue's arms.

Associated Press

Crypto investors'

hot streak ends

NEW YORK - The wealth-generating hot streak for bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies has turned brutally cold. As prices plunge, companies collapse and skepticism soars, fortunes and jobs are disappearing overnight, and investors' feverish speculation has been replaced by icy calculation, in what industry leaders are referring to as a "crypto winter."

On Monday, the price of bitcoin traded at $20,097, more than 70% below its November peak of around $69,000. Experts say the selloff signals growing trepidation on Wall Street and Main Street about the crypto industry's fundamentals, which right now are looking shaky.

Associated Press

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