Chicago-based CNA will acquire London-based Hardy Underwriting, a component of the Lloyd's of London insurance market, for $227 million, Reuters reports.
According to the report, Hardy "put itself up for sale" last December after last year's rough run of catastrophes. A Telegraph report from that time period indicates that the insurer faced up to $40 million in losses from the Thailand floods, leading it to look for suitors.
Hardy is the second small Lloyd's insurer to sell itself to an American firm following catastrophe losses, according to Reuters. Chaucer sold itself to Worcester, Mass.-based Hanover last April when it faced up to an $80 million loss from the New Zealand and Japan earthquakes.
