RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. Advances Strategy with $2.985 Billion Acquisition of Validus Re
Summary
Kevin O’Donnell, President and Chief Executive Officer of RenaissanceRe, commented: “ This acquisition advances our strategy as a leading global property and casualty reinsurer, providing additional scale, and increasing our importance to customers. Furthermore, by gaining access to a large, attractive book of reinsurance business in a favorable market environment, we expect to accelerate our three drivers of profit – underwriting, fee, and investment income. Additionally, we are enhancing our relationship with AIG and demonstrating how our consistent, highly differentiated strategy provides us with unique access to large, one-of-a-kind opportunities that create shareholder value. Any forward-looking statements made in this Press Release, including statements about our expectations, forecasts, projections and estimates regarding the impact of the transactions described herein, reflect RenaissanceRe’s current views with respect to future events and financial performance and are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are subject to numerous factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those addressed by such forward-looking statements, including those disclosed in RenaissanceRe’s filings with the SEC, including its Annual Reports on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and the following: the risk that the Validus Re acquisition may not be completed within the expected timeframe or at all; the risk that regulatory agencies in certain jurisdictions may impose onerous conditions following the Validus Re acquisition; difficulties in integrating Validus Re; risk that the due diligence process that we undertook in connection with the Validus Re acquisition may not have revealed all facts that may be relevant in connection with the Validus Re acquisition; our ability to manage the growth of the Validus Re operations successfully following the acquisition of Validus Re; that historical financial statements of Validus Re are not representative of the future financial position, future results of operations or future cash flows of Validus Re following the acquisition of Validus Re; our exposure to natural and non-natural catastrophic events and circumstances and the variance they may cause in our financial results; the effect of climate change on our business, including the trend towards increasingly frequent and severe climate events; the effectiveness of our claims and claim expense reserving process; the effect of emerging claims and coverage issues; the performance of our investment portfolio and financial market volatility; the effects of inflation; the ability of our ceding companies and delegated authority counterparties to accurately assess the risks they underwrite; our ability to maintain our financial strength ratings; the highly competitive nature of our industry; our reliance on a small number of brokers; collection on claimed retrocessional coverage, and new retrocessional reinsurance being available on acceptable terms or at all; the historically cyclical nature of the (re)insurance industries; our ability to attract and retain key executives and employees; our ability to successfully implement our business, strategies and initiatives; our exposure to credit loss from counterparties; our need to make many estimates and judgments in the preparation of our financial statements; our ability to effectively manage capital on behalf of investors in joint ventures or other entities we manage; changes to the accounting rules and regulatory systems applicable to our business, including changes in Bermuda and U.S. laws or regulations; other political, regulatory or industry initiatives adversely impacting us; our ability to comply with covenants in our debt agreements; the effect of adverse economic factors, including changes in the prevailing interest rates and recession or the perception that recession may occur; the effect of cybersecurity risks, including technology breaches or failure; a contention by the IRS that any of our Bermuda subsidiaries are subject to taxation in the U.S.; the effects of possible future tax reform legislation and regulations in the jurisdictions in which we operate; our ability to determine any impairments taken on our investments; our ability to raise capital on acceptable terms, including through debt instruments, the capital markets, and third party investments in our joint ventures and managed fund partners; our ability to comply with applicable sanctions and foreign corrupt practices laws; and our dependence on the ability of our operating subsidiaries to declare and pay dividends.