Catalina closes $700m equity capital raise

Catalina Holdings (Bermuda) Ltd has closed a $700 million equity capital raise, which has resulted in funds run by private-equity firm Apollo Global management becoming the majority shareholder.

The deal also involved Bermudian reinsurer RenaissanceRe becoming a minority shareholder alongside the management of Catalina, which is a Bermudian-based run-off specialist.

The deal has closed after the receipt of regulatory approvals.

As part of the shareholder restructuring, the Apollo Funds have committed an additional $700 million in new equity capital to fund Catalina’s continued growth. Together with existing committed and undrawn equity, this brings Catalina’s total committed and undrawn equity to $850 million.

Apollo and Catalina first announced the agreement with Apollo a year ago.

Apollo’s acquisition vehicle includes a number of blue-chip, long-term institutional and strategic investors.

Chris Fagan, chairman and chief executive of Catalina, said: “We are pleased to announce that the transaction has closed, and delighted to have secured additional equity commitments of $700 million, which together with our existing committed and undrawn equity, prior commitments from Renaissance Re, and our own strong cashflow generation, gives us equity firepower of over $1 billion.

“When that is combined with our relationship with Apollo’s other entities, it gives Catalina very substantial financial resources to originate much larger transactions than have been done in the non-life legacy sector to date.”

Gernot Lohr, senior partner at Apollo, said: “We believe the completion of this sizeable equity financing, and the Apollo Funds becoming majority shareholders, are a significant milestone for Catalina.

“This transaction consolidates the company’s position as a leader in the non-life run-off industry.

“We look forward to building upon our strong relationship with Chris and the outstanding team at Catalina, and leveraging Apollo’s deep insurance expertise and our other reinsurance entities to continue to help drive the company’s significant growth.”

Apollo first invested funds in Catalina in December 2013. Since then, Catalina has completed 16 transactions, acquiring $3.8 billion of non-life insurance and reinsurance liabilities, and as at August 31, 2018 had total assets of $4 billion.

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