In spite of rumors swirling around Bermuda companies about potential mergers and acquisitions, Mark Lyons, chief financial officer of Arch Capital Group Ltd., said his company, a specialty insurer and reinsurer, doesn’t feel compelled to participate in the M&A frenzy. Executive SummaryThere’s no financial need for M&A at Arch Capital, according to CFO Mark Lyons, who described some strategic acquisitions Arch has done in recent years, along with Arch’s competitive advantages, cycle management strategies, specialty market dynamics and its ownership stake in Watford Re, during a recent interview with Carrier Management.
During an interview with Carrier Management at Standard & Poor’s 2015 Insurance Conference in June, Lyons distinguished between financial and strategic reasons for deal-making. “M&A, to us, is not a need. We don’t have the need to feel bigger,” he said. “We understand why some people are going through either mergers of equals or true acquisitions. Sometimes they strategically make sense, and sometimes they’re financial for just scale and growth.”