Griffin Financial Group Acted as Financial Advisor and Placement Agent for Hospitality Mutual Insurance Company

Overview

Hospitality Mutual Insurance Company is a mutual insurance company domiciled in Massachusetts and headquartered in Southborough, a Boston suburb. The company provides a suite of property and casualty insurance products to the hospitality industry, including primarily bars and restaurants. The company, directly and through a licensed subsidiary, writes business in five New England states as well as Pennsylvania and North Carolina.

Situation

The company sustained underwriting losses in the late 2010s. Conditions worsened as a result of the pandemic, which led to a steep drop in written premiums. Post-pandemic, the company has begun to rebuild its premium base, but in order to complete its return to profitability it needed to increase statutory surplus.

Solution

Hospitality Mutual engaged Griffin to assist it in connection with the simultaneous formation of a mutual holding company under Massachusetts law and the identification of a minority investor to replenish the company’s surplus. Griffin provided advisory services related to the formation of the mutual holding company. It also identified Mutual Capital Investment Fund, a private equity fund focused on the mutual insurance industry, as the investor. Griffin assisted the company with the structuring of the preferred stock investment and the negotiation of the transaction with Mutual Capital Investment Fund.

For more information, contact Jeff Waldron, Co-Head of Insurance, at 610.205.6028, Stacey Weikel, Senior Vice President, at 610.478.2015, or Danielle Knudsen, Vice President, at 610.478.2073.