We’re making great progress towards building a leading North American specialty business. From office visits and regulatory updates to the creation of a cross-border facility and our new specialty organization structure, a lot has been accomplished in a short time. As mentioned last week, our North American specialty organization will continue to operate as Intact Specialty Solutions in Canada. The team has built brand equity with brokers and customers which will allow us to seamlessly introduce new specialty products to the Canadian market shortly after close. The OneBeacon brand will continue to be used in the U.S. where it has strong affinity with agents and brokers; and on closing, we will introduce the association with Intact on OneBeacon’s websites and marketing materials. We are excited about leveraging our combined brand strength to support our goal of becoming a leading North American specialty insurer.
Meet Marie-Josée Sylvestre, Finance Task Force Coordinator
In two short years at Intact, Marie-Josée has been in charge of accounting and reporting for our Broker Financial Services team, was a member of the acquisition due diligence team and most recently began working as the Director of Finance, Integration. In this new role, she’s entirely dedicated to the OneBeacon finance integration with the main objective of having internal and external reporting in place for the first quarter post-close and year end reporting. It includes understanding of new products, different accounting standards, currency, and regulatory and tax environment, which will impact IFC reporting.
Marie-Josée shared her thoughts on the Finance task force’s progress. “In collaboration with teams such as Legal, Actuarial and Intact Investment Management, to date we’ve completed tests for cash flow for closing, legal entity restructuring and quarterly reporting using Q2 results. In parallel, we’re also working with Finance IT on the implementation of a new platform to help us consolidate financial results and translate foreign currency.” When asked about how all the testing was completed with so many teams involved, Marie-Josée said, “Collaboration, planning and communication are key – the task force is working together, we’re sharing information, we’re all aligned and focused on the same goal.”
Meet Julie Letendre, HR Task Force Coordinator
As Director of Compensation, Julie’s team oversees and provides support to departments across Canada for anything related to compensation. In her 15 years at Intact, Julie has had the opportunity to work on several integration projects. This makes her a natural lead for the HR taskforce whose mandate covers assignments, compensation, benefits, onboarding, engagement and talent management.
As we prepare for the transaction close, Julie shared her experience on the HR task force. “My OneBeacon counterparts – a small team for all that they do – are knowledgeable, very responsive and highly engaged. We have worked well as a team and in collaboration with Communications and Legal to develop what we believe is a great onboarding program to welcome our OneBeacon colleagues!” Participating in a transition as coordinator for the first time, Julie added, “The biggest takeaway for me has been the opportunity to hear firsthand about transition updates across the business and meeting new colleagues.”
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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:
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- 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;
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- 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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