Visits to OneBeacon
This past week, Charles and a small team from Intact visited with OneBeacon’s business unit leaders, who gathered in the Denver and New York City offices. These visits provided an opportunity to gain a better and deeper understanding of each specialty business – their appetite, successes and growth strategies. The leaders embraced this opportunity to talk about specific details of their businesses and their goals going forward, and felt very positive about the experience. Craig Collins, President of OneBeacon Financial Services said, “We were able to have a very lively but in-depth conversation about what makes our business unique, the people who support us, our distribution and potential opportunities in all of North America. It was exciting to be able to talk about our business this way.”
Meet Genevieve Moreau, Claims Task Force Coordinator
Having been with Intact for 14 years, Genevieve has held a variety of roles. Most recently, she was the Director, Claims Initiatives and Development, where she was responsible for overseeing project management, communications, training and quality assurance for the Quebec region. She is now moving to a new role as Director within the National Commercial Lines team, while continuing to support the Claims integration between Intact and OneBeacon.
We asked Genevieve about her experience on the Claims task force. “We’re focused on a few things, but the main ones include building our plan for synergies by sharing best practices and how we can leverage our respective strategies, developing claims expertise in Canada for any new products, implementing an efficient cross-border claims process, and leveraging scale and expertise.” When asked about the process, Genevieve said, “The level of teamwork and collaboration is high and we’ve built a great relationship with our counterparts from OneBeacon, allowing us to continually challenge each other. It’s really been quite fun.”
Your Feedback is Important
With each weekly update, our goal is to provide you with helpful information about the progress of the transition. You may recall that a designated emailbox is available for employees to ask private questions or provide feedback. If there are questions on your mind or topics you’d like to know more about, please email intact@onebeacon.com. Additionally, you can use this email should you have any questions for Charles and Mike about the business, our future plans or just to get to know them a bit better. Your questions may be used in an upcoming weekly update.
Safe Harbor Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995
The information contained in this communication may contain “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. All statements, other than statements of historical facts, included or referenced in this communication that address activities, events or developments which we expect will or may occur in the future are forward-looking statements. The words “will,” “believe,” “intend,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “project,” “estimate,” “predict” and similar expressions are also intended to identify forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements include, among others, statements with respect to our:
- change in book value per share or return on equity;
- business strategy;
- financial and operating targets or plans;
- incurred loss and loss adjustment expenses and the adequacy of our loss and loss adjustment expense reserves and related reinsurance;
- projections of revenues, income (or loss), earnings (or loss) per share, dividends, market share or other financial forecasts;
- expansion and growth of our business and operations;
- proposed merger with Intact Financial Corporation (“Intact”);
- future capital expenditures; and
- pending legal proceedings.
These statements are based on certain assumptions and analyses made by us in light of our experience and judgments about historical trends, current conditions and expected future developments, as well as other factors believed to be appropriate in the circumstances. However, whether actual results and developments will conform to our expectations is subject to a number of risks, uncertainties or other factors which are described in more detail beginning on page 16 of the Company’s 2016 Annual Report on Form 10-K, that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations, including:
- recorded loss and loss adjustment expense reserves subsequently proving to have been inadequate;
- changes in interest rates, debt or equity markets or other market volatility that negatively impact our investment portfolio;
- competitive forces and the cyclicality of the property and casualty insurance industry;
- claims arising from catastrophic events, such as hurricanes, windstorms, earthquakes, floods or terrorist attacks;
- the continued availability of capital and financing;
- the continued availability and cost of reinsurance coverage and our ability to collect reinsurance recoverables;
- the ability to maintain data and system security;
- the outcome of litigation and other legal or regulatory proceedings;
- our ability to continue meeting our debt and related service obligations or to pay dividends;
- our ability to successfully develop new specialty businesses;
- changes in laws or regulations, or their interpretations, which are applicable to us, our competitors, our agents or our customers;
- actions taken by rating agencies from time to time with respect to us, such as financial strength or credit rating downgrades or placing our ratings on negative watch;
- our ability to retain key personnel;
- participation in guaranty funds and mandatory market mechanisms;
- our ability to maintain effective operating procedures and manage operational risk;
- changes to current shareholder dividend practice and regulatory restrictions on dividends;
- credit risk exposure in certain of our business operations;
- Bermuda law may afford less protection to shareholders;
- our status as a subsidiary of White Mountains, including potential conflicts of interest, competition, and related-party transactions;
- changes in tax laws or tax treaties;
- the risk that the proposed merger with Intact may not be completed on the currently contemplated timeline or at all;
- risks related to diverting management’s attention from our ongoing business operations and other risks related to the pendency of the proposed merger with Intact, including on our ability to retain and hire key personnel, our ability to maintain relationships with our customers, policyholders, brokers, service providers and others with whom we do business, our stock price and our business, financial condition and results of operations generally;
- the risk that shareholder litigation in connection with the proposed merger with Intact may result in significant costs of defense, indemnification and liability; and other factors, most of which are beyond our control.
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