London-based insurer Amlin Plc has acquired Fortis Corporate Insurance (FCI), a provider of corporate property and casualty insurance in the Netherlands and Belgium, from the State of the Netherlands for €350 million (£301 million).  

London-based insurer Amlin Plc has acquired Fortis Corporate Insurance (FCI), a provider of corporate property and casualty insurance in the Netherlands and Belgium, from the State of the Netherlands for €350 million (£301 million).  

Amlin has also announced a placing of 23,502,567 shares, representing approximately 5 per cent of Amlin’s issued ordinary share capital, to institutional investors, in order to finance part of the consideration for the deal.

Formerly part of the Fortis Group, FCI was created as a result of a merger in 1999 between Fortis-Industrial and Amev-Interlloyd. The Dutch government acquired FCI in October 2008 as part of the nationalisation of the Dutch entities of the Fortis Group. In 2008 FCI wrote €763 million of gross written premiums (GWP) in its specialist lines comprising marine, commercial property, liability and fleet motor.

Charles Philipps, chief executive of Amlin, said: “This acquisition represents a step-change in the development of our organisation and demonstrates the scope of our ambition to build a globally diversified insurance and reinsurance business focussed in markets which require our specialist skills and have high barriers to entry.”

Amlin wrote £1.03 billion of GWP in 2008 and reported pre-tax profits of £121.6 million.