Protective Life has completed its acquisition of Obsidian Insurance Holdings, a hybrid fronting carrier for specialty property and casualty programs, from funds advised by private equity firm Genstar Capital.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The deal, first announced in April, gives the Birmingham, Alabama-based life and annuity insurer its fifth business line and takes it into the excess and surplus lines market for the first time. Protective is the US subsidiary of Japan’s Daiichi Life Group.
Founded in 2020, Obsidian supports specialty programs underwritten by MGAs, MGUs and program managers. It provides carrier infrastructure, oversight and access to reinsurance capacity, and cedes most of the risk it writes to reinsurers. Since its founding, it has grown annual gross written premium to more than $1 billion.
“Obsidian brings Protective into an important segment of the insurance market through a business that complements our existing portfolio,” said Paul Wells, Protective’s president.
Obsidian chief executive William Jewett and president and chief operating officer Craig Rappaport, who co-founded the business with Genstar, will continue to lead it. Lance Black, Protective’...