HOUSTON, Oct. 2, 2006 (PRIMEZONE) -- HCC Insurance Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:HCC) announced today that the Company had closed its recently announced acquisition of the assets of Allianz Life Insurance Company's Health Products Division for a cash consideration of $140 million. The transaction was completed using existing capital resources and without incurring any additional debt.
The Health Products Division is a health insurance operation located in Minneapolis, Minnesota and is one of the leading providers of excess medical insurance (stop loss) for self insured corporations and groups; excess insurance for HMO's; provider excess for integrated delivery systems; excess medical reinsurance to small and regional insurance carriers; and LifeTrac, a network for providing organ and bone marrow transplants. The Health Products Division has been in operation for more than 30 years, currently writing more than $300 million in premium, and will be consolidated into HCC Life Insurance Company's regional office, which is also located in Minneapolis.
Stephen L. Way, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of HCC, said, "We are very excited about this acquisition and the close proximity of both offices, as well as the similarity of much of their operations, will result in a smooth integration and transition which has already begun in earnest." Mr. Way added, "All of us at HCC welcome the Allianz employees whose contribution will have a meaningful effect to the results of both HCC Life and the HCC Group."
HCC has an important leadership position in the medical stop loss industry and following this transaction, its subsidiary HCC Life Insurance Company will write more than $750 million in annual premiums, covering more than 15 million lives for health insurance. For more information see the HCC Life website at www.hcclife.com.
HCC is an international insurance holding company and a leading specialty insurance group since 1974, based in Houston, Texas with offices across the USA and in Bermuda, England and Spain. HCC has assets exceeding $7.0 billion and is rated AA (Very Strong) by Standard & Poor's and A+ (Superior) by A. M. Best Company.
The HCC Insurance Holdings, Inc. logo is available at http://www.primezone.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=1977
For more information, visit our website at www.hcc.com.
Forward-looking statements contained in this press release are made under "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and involve a number of risks and uncertainties. The types of risks and uncertainties which may affect the Company are set forth in its periodic reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.