White Mountains adds another niche insurer to portfolio

Company’s NSM unit acquires Philadelphia-based firm

White Mountains Insurance Group’s recently acquired specialty division continued its aggressive expansion Monday, purchasing a Louisiana-based firm that focuses on the towing and transportation industries.

The White Mountains unit, Philadelphia-based NSM Insurance Group, acquired the assets of KBK Insurance Group for an undisclosed price.

White Mountains, an insurance conglomerate run out of Hanover but officially located in Bermuda, acquired NSM, a firm with $500 million in revenues – in April for $274 million. Last quarter it accounted for nearly $40 million, or a fifth of White Mountains’ revenue. NSM’s goal is to be the leading niche insurance provider in the nation, it said in Monday’s release.

KBK started as a retail insurance agency in the late 1980s, but Brett and Kyle Murray, sons of the founder, switched to insuring tow trucks in 1993, later expanding to insuring used car dealerships then adding body shops and used truck dealers and more recently auto dismantling businesses in and new truck dealers. Manta estimates the company has more than 40 employees and about $20 million in revenue.

NSM, recently bought Fresh, an insurer that specializes in nonstandard personal lines, such as motor trades and vans, for $50 million, and DavidShield, which provides international medical insurance expatriates living abroad, for $41.8 million.