Onex to buy insurance brokerage from Goldman fund for $2.3 billion

(Reuters) - Canadian private equity firm Onex Corp will buy USI, one of the largest providers of insurance brokerage services in the United States, from Goldman Sachs Group Inc's GS Capital Partners private equity fund for $2.3 billion.

USI, founded in 1994 and taken private in 2007, says it is the ninth largest insurance broker in the United States. It offers property, casualty, employee benefit and retirement consulting services.

Onex Partners III, Onex's $4.7 billion private equity fund, will make an equity investment of about $700 million. Onex is a 25 percent limited partner in Onex Partners III.

Onex, with about $14 billion of assets under management, is a co-investor in the transaction.

USI said its employees, who invested alongside GS Capital Partners to take it private, will remain investors in the company.

The deal is expected to close by the end of the year.

Onex was advised by Morgan Stanley, while GS Capital Partners was advised by Goldman, Sachs & Co and RBC Capital Markets LLC.

(Reporting by Bhaswati Mukhopadhyay in Bangalore)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/onex-buy-us-insurance-brokerage-services-co-2-121920647--sector.html

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