America for sale: Insurance department
Here's yet another major acquisition of an American company from a foreign country. Tokio Marine Holdings, the #1 casualty insurance company in Japan, announced its deal to buy out US casualty insurer Philadelphia Consolidated Holding. The deal is for $4.7 billion in an all-cash deal. It would be the largest acquisition ever by a Japanese insurance company.
The move is part of a trend of Japanese insurers to diversify out of Japan, where expansion opportunities are limited. Tokio Marine has spent about $2 billion buying insurers in China and the UK since 2002. The US casualty insurance market is currently quite unconsolidated with up to 2,000 companies in the business. But there's a lot of stress on that business, with lots of claims from recent climate-related disasters, so there may be come real pressure to consolidate.
Before the move, Tokio Marine was the world's 13th largest non-life insurance company. This move will push it up in the rankings. This deal is not a very large one in the insurance industry, but it is indicative of the temptation at the relatively low cost of profitable US businesses.
10:01:08 PM 
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