Southport Re to be sold to investment firm

Southport Re, the private equity-backed Cayman domiciled reinsurer, is to be acquired by New York-based investment group Lennox Investments.

Southport Re, which is owned by Southport Lane Genesis, itself part of private equity firm Southport Lane Management, writes much of the reinsurance coverage it provides on a fully collateralized basis.

Lennox Investments has said that a memorandum of understanding has been signed between the two firms.
Southport Re underwrote approximately $32 million of gross premiums in 2013, primarily focusing on underwriting long-tail lines of property and casualty reinsurance.

Lennox Investments said that it hopes to complete the acquisition by the end of the second quarter of 2014.

If the deal goes through, Southport will become one of the few private equity players to exit the reinsurance space at a time when most firms still appear to have a healthy appetite to enter it. The logic behind the move has not yet come to light but the motivations of both buyer and sell could be interesting for the wider industry.