Topic: How To Invest

Stock Pickers Digest Hotline – Friday, August 23, 2019

Article Excerpt

INTACT FINANCIAL CORP., $125.76, symbol IFC on Toronto, is Canada’s largest provider of property and casualty insurance. The company insures more than five million individuals and businesses. Its major brands are Intact Insurance, Canada BrokerLink and belairdirect. Intact has now agreed to buy two regional insurers in a move aimed at expanding in specialty insurance. The company is paying Cambridge, Ontario-based Princeton Holdings $1 billion for The Guarantee Co. of North America and Frank Cowan Co. Ltd. Founded in Montreal in 1872, The Guarantee collects about $560 million in annual premiums, which would bring Intact’s direct premiums from specialty lines in North America to nearly $3 billion. Specialty lines insurers typically underwrite more difficult and unusual risks or higher-risk accounts such as professional liability, marine and aviation. Frank Cowan Company is based in Princeton, a village about halfway between Woodstock and Brantford in Ontario. The firm has two departments: public entity and specialty programs and associations. For daycares and schools, Frank Cowan places coverage…