Sector developments and company hires

Risk assessment platform bolstered
Moody's is set to acquire climate and natural disaster risk modeling and analytics firm RMS from Daily Mail and General Trust for approximately US$2bn. The acquisition will immediately increase Moody’s insurance data and analytics business to nearly US$500m in revenue and accelerate the development of the company’s global integrated risk capabilities to address the next generation of risk assessment.

With over 400 risk models covering 120 countries, RMS serves the global property and casualty (P&C) insurance and reinsurance industries. The acquisition builds upon Moody’s and RMS’s complementary customer bases and capabilities.

Through further innovation and a combination of both companies’ core strengths and offerings, RMS is expected to meaningfully accelerate Moody’s integrated risk assessment strategy for customers in the insurance industry and beyond, with significant capabilities across climate, cyber, commercial real estate and supply chain risk. As part of the Moody’s Analytics platform, RMS is expected to generate up to US$150m of incremental run-rate revenue by 2025.

The acquisition is expected to close in late 3Q21, subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions.

In other news…

North America
Digital auto insurer Metromile has appointed John Butler, an md of Cohen & Company, to its board. Butler is head of Cohen & Company’s US insurance asset management platform and has 25 years of insurance experience. Prior to joining Cohen & Company, he oversaw the investment of US$4bn principally in fixed income and ILS at Twelve Capital.

Butler will assume the non-executive chairman role on 31 August, succeeding David Friedberg, ceo of The Production Board and Metromile founder, who has served in the position for more than 10 years. Friedberg will remain a member of the Metromile board. Meanwhile, Betsy Cohen has stepped down from the board, Cohen & Company having been instrumental in Metromile’s transition to a public company.