Nephila Capital buys Universal Insurance shares

Investment manager Nephila Capital, through affiliate Ananke Catastrophe Investments, has bought $19 million worth of shares in insurer Universal Insurance.

The proceeds will allow Universal to further reduce its quota share and accelerate its organic growth strategy.

“This investment by Nephila, the premier investment manager within the global property reinsurance space, underscores the strength of our longstanding partnership and their confidence in Universal,” said Sean Downes, Universal’s chairman, president and chief executive officer.

“By using shares held in treasury from prior repurchases, this transaction will immediately increase our book value per share by 7 percent. The transaction will also allow the company to use the proceeds to accelerate its organic growth strategy through the combination of continued geographic expansion outside of Florida and further quota share reduction. We are uniquely positioned in that a complete quota share reduction would allow us to retain an additional $230 million of our own organically grown business.”