A&O, Hogan Lovells on opposite sides of Catalina’s Glacier purchase

Hogan Lovells London banking partner Stuart Brinkworth, recently ­featured in The Lawyer Hot 100 2011, led the team ­acting for Barclays and Lloyds TSB on the financing for the deal.

Milan finance head Paul Flanagan led for A&O, advising longstanding client Catalina on the run-off ­purchase. The undisclosed purchase price was at a ­discount to Glacier’s net asset value of $347m (£215.2m).

Brinkworth, one of two relationship partners for Lloyds TSB on new-money deals, along with legacy Lovells finance partner Mark Donald, said winning the mandate was a sign that the firm was launching an assault on these types of transactions.

“We’ve reinvigorated our approach and are going to be pushing Lloyds hard this year for work on the new-money side,” he said. “This type of deal plays very much  to the firm’s strengths in both finance and insurance and represents a large step forward for us.”

Glacier was established seven years ago and had a book of largely short-tail reinsurance before entering run-off. As of 30 September last year it had assets totalling $1.2bn.

An insurance business enters run-off when it no longer writes policies and is closed to new business. There are understood to be a number of deals in the ­market involving the sale of run-off insurers.

Brinkworth added: “This is a very technical area of law, so only a small number of lenders have the ­knowledge and experience to lend to this sector.”

It is thought that Clyde & Co acted for the unnamed vendor on the deal.