Early in our transition planning, we committed to bringing together the strong leadership, deep talent and expertise from both of our organizations to launch a leading North American specialty business. This week, our new specialty organization was announced, which will take effect once the transaction closes.
Visiting the OneBeacon Claims Group
Genevieve Moreau, claims task force coordinator, shared that a part of the focus for the Claims task force has been to ensure that Intact is developing claims expertise in Canada for any new products and to implement an efficient cross-border claims process. Over the past few weeks, the group has been working with their OneBeacon counterparts to get input, share experience and leverage the expertise that OneBeacon has to ensure we can respond when the first claim comes through. On Tuesday, Charles and Patrick Barbeau joined Sean Duffy in Plymouth, MN to meet with the OneBeacon claims team.
Sean was happy to share some insights from the meeting: “We were pleased to host Charles and Patrick this past week. Members of the OneBeacon claims team met with them and Mike to discuss the claims transition plan and the synergies it will create. We have made significant progress on our plan, and we believe we are on track to meet our goals.”
Facilitating the new cross-border desk
Meanwhile in Toronto, Intact hosted a face-to-face meeting involving OneBeacon, Brokerlink, and Intact employees from claims, underwriting, operations and planning, legal, and sales and business development. The diverse group covered several topics including overall vision, product overview, agent/broker interaction, claims handling, and of course how we put all this into practice.
This meeting was a key milestone as we work towards establishing a cross-border facility, which will allow us to seamlessly serve Canadian and U.S.-based customers with exposures north and south of the border from where they are domiciled. After months of planning, the teams are gearing up for implementation so that we can be ready to launch shortly after the transaction closes.
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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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- proposed merger with Intact Financial Corporation (“Intact”);
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- 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;
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- 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;
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