Conditions are ripe for an increase in merger and acquisition activity, but the state-based system of insurance regulation is impeding the number of deals taking place, one financial analyst suggests.
M&A activity has been unjustifiably slow, V.J. Dowling, managing partner at Dowling & Partners Securities LLC, noted here during the recent Standard and Poor's "Insurance 2008 Conference: Operating Within a Global Economy."
Speaking as part of a broader panel, he added that last year, even the $250 million-plus transactions that did occur were not what he called "traditional deals" involving public companies. Instead, they involved mutual companies, foreign carriers and, in one case, a hedge fund, he said.
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