QUANTA TO SELL ITSELF TO RUN-OFF SPECIALIST CATALINA

Quanta Capital Holdings, the Bermudian insurer/reinsurer in run-off, has agreed to sell itself to Catalina Holdings Ltd and Catalina Alpha Ltd for around $197m. The deal, expected to close during Q4, calls for Catalina to pay Quanta shareholders $2.80 per share in cash, marking a 49% premium over Quanta’s $1.88 closing price last Thursday. Catalina specialises in the acquisition and management of insurers and reinsurers in run-off — it bought Overseas Partners Re in 2005. Quanta chairman James Ritchie said that the deal, combined with the $1.75 cash dividend per share declared in March, “would enable us to return $4.55 per share to our shareholders in 2008”, representing around 91% of the group’s end-2007 book value and 95% of its book value in September 2006, when it placed all its business, except for its interest in Lloyd’s syndicate 4000, into run-off.