Sale of HIM

Hiscox Ltd 06 December 2007 BUYOUT OF THIRD PARTY FUND MANAGEMENT BUSINESS FROM HISCOX Hamilton, Bermuda - Hiscox Ltd ('Hiscox') the specialist insurer announces today that it has agreed to sell its third party fund management arm, Hiscox Investment Management Limited, to the principals, creating an independent investment management company. Hiscox will have a 40% shareholding in the company, with management holding the remainder. The buyout is due to complete on 31st December 2007. The gross assets of Hiscox Investment Management at the closing of the transaction are expected to be approximately £2 million. On completion Hiscox Investment Management Limited will change its name to HIM Capital Limited ('HIM Capital'). HIM Capital will continue to specialise in the financial sector, initially offering three funds: the Hiscox Insurance Portfolio Fund focusing on Global insurance, the Hiscox Far Eastern Financial Fund investing in Asian financials ex-Japan, and the Hiscox European Financial Fund focusing on European financials with a specific emphasis on emerging Europe. HIM Capital will launch with approximately £125 million under management. HIM Capital will be led by Alec Foster as chairman, Mark Stacpoole as managing director and John Yakas and Nick Martin as fund managers. (Biographies and details of the three funds are attached in the editors' notes). Commenting on the transaction, Bronek Masojada, chief executive of Hiscox, said: 'In recent years the team at Hiscox Investment Management have established themselves as a leading specialist fund manager in financials. Independent of Hiscox, the management team will be well positioned to develop this area and grow the business organically and through partnerships.' Alec Foster, chairman of HIM Capital, said: 'The management buyout of Hiscox's third party fund management business represents an exciting new chapter for my team and for our fund investors. We will continue to focus our energies on providing specialist investment management in financials. Although financials have been under significant and indiscriminate pressure over the past months this has highlighted the opportunities now available for working with specialists. Financials form an integral part of the global economy and we look forward to using our expertise in this area for the benefit of our fund investors in the years ahead.' The launch of HIM Capital will capitalise on the management team's experience of investing in financials while allowing the company additional opportunities to develop and grow. The team has a strong belief in the value of specialist fund management in the financials sector. The company's investment process focuses on bottom-up stock picking, using research generated internally. The investment strategy has a strong quality bias and the managers prefer a buy and hold approach to portfolio management. HIM Capital's target investors are the institutional and high net worth sectors. For Hiscox, the specialist mutual funds business has been a valuable, albeit non-core, part of the group. Hiscox will continue to be an investor in the funds and with its significant stake in the business will have a representative on the board. Hiscox will retain oversight of the investment of its own assets. Ends All media enquiries: Mainland Phoebe Davison/Neil Mainland 0203 008 7400 07771 981672/07753 787290 Hiscox Investment Management Alec Foster/Mark Stacpoole 0207 448 6000 Hiscox Ltd Kylie O'Connor/Robin Mehta Group Communications/Company Secretary 0207 448 6656/+1 441278 8300 Editors' Notes: About Hiscox Investment Management Hiscox Investment Management is an investment management subsidiary of Hiscox Ltd. It is responsible for supervising the investment of the Hiscox Group's funds. It is also a specialist fund manager with an established track record and expertise of managing portfolios in the financial sector, principally in banking and insurance. The company has been managing specialist financials funds since 1993 and currently has funds under management of approximately £125 million. The buyout will complete on the 31st December 2007 and has been approved by the FSA. Following the completion of the transaction, the company will be renamed HIM Capital Limited. The HIM Capital Funds The Hiscox Insurance Portfolio Fund (Manager: Alec Foster) was launched in 1998 and has returned +82.7% versus +32.1%* for the Datastream World Insurance Index (£). The fund is the only European vehicle for investing in insurance industry companies worldwide. The £51 million fund offers a diversified exposure to leading property/casualty and life insurers, brokers and related insurance businesses worldwide, placing a specific emphasis on mid-cap insider-owned companies. The fund is managed as a portfolio of insurance 'risks', placing particular emphasis on underwriting and the ability of managers to make superior returns across cycles. Alec Foster has worked in the industry for 40 years and has an excellent network of contacts particularly in the US and the UK. The Hiscox Far Eastern Financial Fund (Manager: John Yakas) was launched in 1996 and has returned +150.0% versus +59.9%* for the Datastream Asia ex-Japan Financials Index. The $65 million fund is the only European investment vehicle dedicated to investment in financial companies in the Far East excluding Japan. Asian financials offer a warrant on the growth of the world's most exciting economies yet are less exposed to some of the speculative excesses of more developed markets. The fund will benefit from the growing wealth of the Asian consumer and the huge infrastructure expenditure across the region. The increasing demand for both borrowing and saving products of banks, insurers and asset managers will offer exciting investment opportunities as the markets mature from export-led economies to domestic powerhouses in their own right. The Hiscox European Financial Fund (Manager: John Yakas) was launched in 1993 and has returned +373.8% versus +276.7%* for the Datastream European Financials Index. The €20 million fund has a long track record of benefiting from the significant changes to the European financial landscape over the past 15 years. An initial beneficiary of the moves towards a single market and thereafter the introduction of a single currency, the fund has most recently been positioned to benefit from the expansion of Europe into the new countries of Central and Eastern Europe. The fund has built up increasing holdings in the growth markets of emerging Europe with some 50% of the fund in the region either through direct investment or through companies with subsidiaries in the region. HIM Capital is in the process of seeking approvals to merge the Hiscox Global Financials Fund into the Hiscox European Financial Fund. This process is anticipated to be completed early in the New Year. * Performance data as at 30th November 2007 The HIM Capital Team Alec Foster will be chairman of HIM Capital. He will continue to manage the Hiscox Insurance Portfolio Fund in conjunction with Nick Martin. Alec has worked in the insurance business for 40 years, first as an insurance broker in the London market and for the past 31 years at Hiscox. Prior to the buyout he was managing director of Hiscox Investment Management and had been group investment officer until 2005. He launched the Hiscox Insurance Portfolio Fund in 1998. He was chairman of Universal Salvage plc, the listed insurance related vehicle service company prior to its acquisition by the US company Copart in 2007. He is also a director of Midas Capital Partners, the Liverpool based fund manager and Trustee Director of St Andrew's Healthcare. Mark Stacpoole, former director of marketing at Hiscox Investment Management, will become HIM Capital's managing director. Mark has spent 24 years in the financial services industry and the past five years in the asset management business. Mark started his career in capital markets at Morgan Grenfell in 1983 and in 1988 joined Kleinwort Benson where he was a director of corporate finance for nine years. In 2000, he joined a start-up financial services group EO as a managing director. In 2002, he joined Warnborough Asset Management, the private equity group, as managing director responsible for fund raising. He joined Hiscox in 2004 as director of marketing to increase the distribution of the funds both in the UK and internationally. John Yakas is the manager of the Hiscox Far Eastern and European Financials Funds. John has worked in the financial services industry for the past 20 years and has been with Hiscox for the past four years. He has been involved with the Hiscox Far Eastern Financial Fund since its launch in 1996. He has also been responsible for the migration of the Hiscox European Financial Fund to Central and Eastern Europe over the past two years. He has held a number of positions within the banking and financial research industry prior to becoming the Head of Asian Research at Fox-Pitt, Kelton in 1995 and launching their office in Hong Kong in 2000. He left Fox-Pitt, Kelton in 2003 and became a Director of Hiscox Far Eastern Financial Fund and a consultant to Hiscox Investment Management. Nick Martin is the co-manager of the Hiscox Insurance Portfolio Fund, working closely with Alec Foster. He has worked in the financial services industry for nine years and at Hiscox for the past six years. He provides company analysis as well as being deeply involved in all the investment ideas for the Fund. He is a qualified chartered accountant and obtained a first class honours degree, Bsc Econometrics and Mathematical Economics at the London School of Economics. Nick developed a broad knowledge of the insurance sector at the chartered accountants, Mazars Neville Russell, where he specialised in audit and consultancy work for insurance companies, insurance brokers and Lloyd's syndicates. The non-executive directors on the HIM Capital Board will be Adrian Collins and Charles Dupplin. Adrian Collins has worked in the fund management business for over 30 years, a large part of which was at Gartmore Investment Management Limited where latterly he was managing director. Adrian is a director of a number of asset management companies including Midas Capital Partners, Corvus Capital and two investment trusts. Charles Dupplin is the appointed representative of Hiscox, where he is the chairman of the Art and Private Client division and director of mergers and acquisitions. About Hiscox Hiscox, headquartered in Bermuda, is a specialist insurance group listed on the London Stock Exchange. There are three main underwriting parts of the Group - Hiscox Global Markets, Hiscox UK and Europe, and Hiscox International. Hiscox Global Markets underwrites mainly internationally traded business in the London Market - generally large or complex business which needs to be shared with other insurers or needs the international licences of Lloyd's. Hiscox UK and Hiscox Europe offer a range of specialist insurance for professionals and business customers, as well as high net worth individuals. Hiscox International includes operations in Bermuda, Guernsey and the USA. Hiscox Insurance Company Ltd, Hiscox Underwriting Ltd and Hiscox Syndicates Ltd are authorised and regulated by the FSA. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange EN DISUNRKRBARURRA
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