Britain's Howden buys U.S. reinsurance broker TigerRisk for $1.6 billion

LONDON (Reuters) - British insurance firm Howden has bought U.S. reinsurance broker TigerRisk Partners to create a firm with an enterprise value of over $13 billion, it said on Thursday.

The purchase price was $1.6 billion, Howden chief executive David Howden told Reuters.

Insurance and reinsurance brokers have been merging in recent years to make prices more competitive, though a giant merger between two of the world's largest brokers, Aon and Willis Towers Watson, was blocked by U.S. regulators last year.

Howden provides insurance and reinsurance broking and underwriting services.

The combined firm has reinsurance revenues close to $400 million, the company said.

The acquisition would create "a business of real scale and global reach", David Howden said, offering more services to insurers and reinsurers as they face rising interest rates and wage and energy inflation, supply chain issues and the increasing cost of natural catastrophes.

Rod Fox, executive chairman and co-founder of TigerRisk, will become executive chair of Howden Tiger, Howden said in a statement.

(Reporting by Carolyn Cohn; editing by David Evans)