Sentry Insurance, a Stevens Point, Wis., mutual company, said Friday that it had agreed to buy Viking Insurance, a provider of specialty auto insurance, from Royal & SunAlliance for an undisclosed price.
Regulatory approval is needed for the deal to close.
The Sentry mutual insurance group has assets of more than $8.5 billion and policyholders' surplus of $2.4 billion. It offers a full line of property and casualty insurance, life insurance, retirement programs, employee benefits, and related services to businesses and consumers throughout the country.
The purchase would double Sentry's size in the market for insuring drivers who find coverage difficult to afford or maintain and give it entrée to the California and North Carolina markets for specialty auto insurance.
Viking wrote direct premiums of more than $400 million last year, selling its auto policies through 7,900 independent agencies and brokers in 27 states. Almost half its premium sold was in California and North Carolina. Viking was founded in 1971 in Madison, Wis., and has been part of Royal & SunAlliance since 1999.
