Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company has formally integrated Harleysville Mutual Insurance Company and Harleysville Group into its underwriting businesses.
Harleysville president and chief operating officer Michael Browne said that Harleysville is now a part of Nationwide's P&C independent agency business unit under the Harleysville brand.
Nationwide Mutual acquired all of the publicly held shares of common stock of Harleysville Group for $60.00 per share in cash, which totaled nearly $834m.
Nationwide chief executive officer Steve Rasmussen said the completion of the transaction sets Nationwide apart from the competition as an independent agency partner in the US.
"At the same time, Nationwide maintains a strong commitment to our exclusive agency partners. Combined, we are able to accelerate our strategy to make it easy for agents and customers to do business with Nationwide however they desire," Rasmussen said.
According to the merger deal, Harleysville Mutual policyholders will become policyholders and members of Nationwide Mutual.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Jones Day and Saul Ewing provided financial consultation to Nationwide, while Credit Suisse Securities (USA) acted as financial advisor to Harleysville Mutual and Harleysville.
