Maiden is to return approximately $700 million in gross unearned premium to AmTrust after being dropped from its US small commercial business quota share.
Bermudian Maiden said that will net to approximately $480mn after ceding commission and brokerage.
Maiden said that it had mutually agreed with AmTrust “to a partial termination amendment” quota share agreement, which is set to expire 30 June 2019.
Yesterday AmTrust announced it had swapped Maiden for the Zurich-headquartered reinsurance giant – Swiss Reinsurance America Corp – on its US small commercial book, which is $2.9bn in projected written premium.
In a statement today, Maiden said the amendment would only impact AmTrust’s small commercial business and US extended warranty and specialty risk as of 31 December 2018, with the remainder of the Maiden quota share agreement remaining in place.
“This amendment to our quota share agreement with AmTrust further strengthens Maiden’s capital position while continuing to position Maiden for the future,” said Lawrence F. Metz, Maiden’s president and chief executive officer.
“This amendment partially terminates specific lines of business in our AmTrust quota share agreement, including small commercial business and us extended warranty and specialty risk,” he added.
“The remainder of our AmTrust quota share agreement remains in-force and we continue to work with AmTrust towards a potential new, smaller agreement.”
The changes to quota share see Swiss Re assume approximately $1.05bn on an inforce, new and renewal basis.
The agreement commenced on January 1 and renews on an annual basis.
AmTrust said it was terminating its existing quota share with Maiden Re on a cut-off basis and would cede the unearned premium of the book from 31 December 2018 to Swiss Re.
TigerRisk and JLT Re acted as reinsurance intermediaries for the transaction.
AmTrust completed its $2.95bn MBO backed by Stone Point and Enstar late last year.
Closing the deal was a lengthy process, with AmTrust chairman and CEO Barry Zyskind, his wife’s family the Karfunkels and backers led by private equity firm Stone Point first tabling a bid to take the carrier private back in January.
The offer was twice raised from an initial $12.25 a share to $13.50 a share in the wake of criticism over the perceived low price, and again in May to $14.75 a share after activist Carl Icahn revealed he had taken an almost 10 percent stake in AmTrust.
The higher price secured the approval of the proxy firms, which urged shareholders to vote in favour of the deal in a ballot that passed in June.
But then in the autumn significant shareholder Arca Capital put another obstacle in the transaction’s path with a bid to block the deal by asking state regulators to step in, alleging denial of claims by the insurer in the past.
Arca was among a number of minority investors who had claimed the company was worth considerably more than the final offer price, suggesting a price close to double that level would be fair.