Practice Areas

Mergers and Acquisitions

• Berkshire Hathaway (Columbia Insurance) on its acquisition of Hartford Life Europe
• SCOR on its acquisition of the mortality risk business of Transamerica Re
• RSA Insurance on its acquisitions of Europa Group, Sertus Insurance and Benchmark Underwriting
• Alterra/Harbor Point (now Markel) in its amalgamation with Max Capital
• Enstar on its acquisition of Citilife Financial (now Laguna Life) from Citigroup
• 123.ie and its vendors on its acquisition by RSA Insurance
• NPG Wealth Management (JC Flowers) on its acquisition of Combined Life Assurance Company of Europe from ACE Group
• Vivas Health vendors on its sale to Aviva Insurance
• Reinsurance Group of America (RGA) on the acquisition on a renewals basis of the life accident and health business of XL Re
• IPC Re in relation to its merger with Validus, and previous amalgamation plan involving Max Capital
• Wellpoint on the acquisition of DeCare Dental
• Carlyle Group on its acquisition of the motor assist business RAC Group from Aviva
  Restructurings and Portfolio Transfers

Domestic and cross-border restructurings and inward/outward transfers of (re)insurance books involving High Court and regulatory authorisations including:

• Allied World, Alterra (Markel), AXA and SCOR on Court sanctioned mergers of Irish insurance, reinsurance and hedging platforms
• Electrolux on the portfolio transfer of the non-life insurance business from its Irish captive to its Swedish captive
• Ericsson in the portfolio transfers of its insurance and reinsurance captive business to its non-life local carrier
• Scottish Re on the portfolio transfer of its Irish business to its Cayman Islands affiliate
• Darta Saving Life and Allianz on the portfolio transfer of German branch life business
• Oney on the portfolio transfer of its PPI portfolio to its Malta insurance platform
• Authorisations and New Establishments

The establishment of head office operations in Ireland selling on a freedom of services/freedom of establishment basis across EEA jurisdictions including recent set-ups involving:

• AXA Life Europe, AXA Life Invest and AXA Reinsurance Ireland
• Allianz Global Life
• MetLife
• Fidelity Worldwide Investment (FIL)
• Wüstenrot & Württembergische
• R&V Lebensversicherung
• WIPRO
• Santander Insurance
• Ironshore

Insurance Linked Securitisations and Capital Markets

• SCOR on the various Atlas (I to VI) cat bond insurance linked securitisations
• Scottish Re on its Orkney II and Ballantyne Re securitised reinsurance structures
• AXA Cessions in its Osiris mortality cat bond programme
• AXA as sponsor of Calypso Capital in its European windstorm debt issuance
• EDF as sponsor of Pylon II

Run-offs and Winding-ups

• Berkshire Hathaway (Columbia Insurance) on its acquisition of Hartford Life Europe
• LCL Acquisitions (Charles Taylor Group) on its acquisition of Irish non-life insurance undertaking Santam Europe (in run off)
• Enstar on its acquisition of Citilife (now Laguna Life)
• Capricorn Insurance, IAG Re (Australia) (and others) on schemes leading to the surrender back of (re)insurance authorisations to the Central Bank of Ireland

General Advisory and Other Regulatory Work

• Various authorised (re)insurers on on-going legal and regulatory aspects, including dialogue with the Central Bank of Ireland on areas such as product development and corporate governance best practice and potentially contentious matters such as on-site visits, administrative sanctions and enforcement.

Contentious Insurance

• Advising various professional firms regarding professional indemnity claims including stockbrokers, accountancy and consultancy firms, real estate and valuation firms, and international insurance brokers
• Acting for a major Irish insurer in relation to professional indemnity and public products liability cases. Subrogated claims against third parties, property damage and business interruption policies
• Advising on the coverage and policy wording of various insurance policies for bodies in the financial services sector including reinsurance, catastrophe insurance, D&O and combined business & liability insurance

• Establishment / authorisation of new (re)insurance operations and strategic planning
• Mergers, acquisitions, disposals, joint ventures, re-structuring of businesses and Societas Europaea structures
• Court-sanctioned portfolio transfers and schemes of arrangements
• All prudential and conduct of business requirements under Solvency II including capital requirements, corporate and product governance, compliance and outsourcing
• Captive (re)insurance operations
• Alternative risk transfer arrangements including insurance-linked securitisations (ILS)
• Insurance mediation activities and distribution channels
• Reinsurance / retrocession arrangements (including finite and financial reinsurance)
• Winding up and administration of insurers
• Regulatory investigations and enforcement actions
• InsurTech
• Outsourcing
• ESG