Buyer found for Hawaiian Insurance & Guaranty Ltd.

Hawaii Insurance Commissioner J.P. Schmidt, as liquidator of The Hawaiian Insurance & Guaranty Co. Ltd., has announced that an agreement has been reached with a buyer for HIG.

While the commissioner’s office says the name of the buyer is confidential and will be released next week, Great Northwest Insurance Co. is rumored to be the buyer. The St. Paul, Minn.-based company has an article by the Honolulu Advertiser on its Web site about HIG’s pending sale.

According to the Commissioner’s office, HIG will assume all of the company’s current policies to provide continuous coverage to HIG policyholders.

“We were in negotiations until 1 a.m. this morning, and the agreemetn was finally agreed upon and signed this afternoon,” Schmidt said late Friday.

The First Circuit Court held status conferences on the progress of HIG’s liquidation last week. The mainland-based officers of HIG, Vesta Insurance Group, the holding company of HIG, and J. Gordon Gaines, a VIG-affiliated management company, have filed a motion to intervene as a party in the liquidation action.

“VIG’s intervention in the case essentially killed an agreement I was negotiating with a different company,” Schmidt said. “I have not seen any basis for the intervention or objections, but we will have to proceed through the court process.”

Sources: Great Northwest Insurance, Hawaii DOI