Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance is seeking to raise its stake in British specialty insurer Canopius from 40 percent to about 80 percent in a deal with US investment firm KKR and other investors, according to local industry reports Monday.
Samsung Fire and its partners would pay a combined $2.2 billion for the 60 percent of Canopius that the Korean insurer does not already own. Samsung Fire would raise its stake from the current 40 percent to about 80 percent, while the other institutional investors would share the remaining 20 percent.
The stake is held by shareholders including a consortium led by US private equity firm Centerbridge Partners. Potential institutional investors in the deal include KKR and Korea Investment Corp., South Korea's sovereign wealth fund.
Samsung Fire began its investment in Canopius in 2019 and acquired additional stakes in 2020 and 2025. Last year, it added a 21 percent stake, bringing its holding to 40 percent. Its investment across the three transactions reportedly totaled about 1.2 trillion won ($890 million). If the acquisition is completed, Canopius would become a Samsung Fire subsidiary.
Canopius is a London-based specialty insurer focused on marine, aviation, cyber and energy insurance. It posted a net profit of $467 million last year and $391 million in the first half of this year.
With low birth rates and an aging population limiting growth in Korea's insurance market, the acquisition would allow Samsung Fire to expand its specialty insurance and reinsurance business through Canopius' operations in the US, Bermuda and Singapore.
If completed, the deal would mark Samsung Fire's first acquisition of a controlling stake in an overseas insurer. It would also be the largest overseas acquisition led by a Korean insurer, surpassing DB Insurance's $1.65 billion purchase of US insurer Fortegra in May.
jwc@heraldcorp.com
