Toscafund Asset Management and other minority shareholders of Ca
ravela Seguros are exploring a sale of the Portuguese insurer, according to people familiar with the matter.
London-based Toscafund, which owns a 48% stake in Caravela, has hired
Mediobanca to advise on a potential sale of its holding, the people said, asking not to be identified becaus
e the discussions are private. Caravela’s remaining shareholders — a grou
p of more than 20 investors — are also weighing a sale of the company, the people said.
Spokespeople for Toscafund and for Mediobanca declined to comm
ent. Representatives for Caravela did not respond to phone calls or an emailed request for comment.
Toscafund acquired its stake at the end of 2019, investing
€30 million ($34.9 million) through a capital increase. Other Caravela shareholders include Mário Ferreira, chairman and larges
t shareholder of Portuguese media group Media Capital and the owner of a cru
ise ship company. Ferreira did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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Caravela’s gross written premiums rose 17% in 2024 to €187.7 million, according to the company’s latest earnings report. T
he insurer ranks ninth in Portugal’s non-life insura
nce market, with a 2.2% market share, according to Portugal’s insurance and pension fund regulator ASF.
As was the case in all the prior studies reviewed by Carrier Man
agement, ACORD’s 2025 study, released in mid-December last yea
r, identified value creators and value destroyers by determining whether 20-year returns exceeded a prescribed benchm
ark. Creators exceeded the benchmark over the study period; destroyers
did not. (More precisely, the study examined cash flow in excess of an 8.2%
cost of capital as the measure of value. Related textbox, “Defining Value Creation”)
The ACORD analysis breaks the value creators into two categories: sustainable value creators that meet the required return threshold through underwriting and investment activitie
s, and hollow value creators that do so through investment returns only while failing to generate value from underwriting.