Norton Rose and Rodyk have advised UK insurance run-off specialist Omni Whittington on its acquisition of Lion City Run-Off.

Supported by the firm's head office in London, Singapore-based corporate finance and insurance partner Chris Moore led the Norton Rose team. Rodyk & Davidson advised Omni Whittington on Singapore law issues. Allen & Gledhill advised DBS.

The acquisition was achieved in two stages. First, certain offshore general reinsurance portfolios were transferred into a newly incorporated subsidiary of DBS Group Holdings Limited (DBS) - Lion City Run-Off Private Limited (LCR) - by way of a Singapore Insurance Act scheme of transfer. Upon completion of the scheme of transfer, Omni Whittington acquired LCR from DBS.

The Singapore purchase is just the latest by Omni Whittington, which in July acquired Reliance National Asia Re Pte Ltd  the local operations of US insurance group [now in liquidation] Reliance Insurance Company. With the Lion City Run-Off acquisition, Omni Whittington aims to consolidate its position in the Singapore insurance market as a provider of run-off solutions.

Moore said: "The proposed run-off via a solvent scheme of arrangement is well established in the UK insurance market as a solution to bring finality to creditors and this deal is a further step in helping Omni transport its expertise into the Asian markets."

Omni Whittington CEO Tony Hobrow added: "Singapore and Asia generally are areas of considerable growth for us so we've been keen to find a second acquisition that consolidates our position there. By buying Lion City Run-Off, we can use our expertise to close Lion City through a solvent scheme of arrangement, thereby paying all creditors in full. We hope that this method of bringing finality to a book of business will be beneficial to all parties and will become an accepted run-off solution in the region and be the springboard for further opportunities."