(Bloomberg) -- XL Group Plc Chief Executive Officer Mike McGavick said that while he shuns casinos unless he’s with his mother-in-law, he’s felt lately like he was sitting at a “high stakes table” as he made insurance deals.

McGavick announced a plan in December to sell a stake in a home insurer to Progressive Corp. then reached an agreement the next month to buy Catlin Group Ltd. for about $4 billion. Transactions in the reinsurance and specialty-coverage industries are accelerating to create companies that can withstand pressure from new rivals.

The reinsurance “sector is littered with roadkill, and yet it seems new entrants are getting on the road every day,” McGavick said in an annual letter to shareholders, posted on the Dublin-based company’s website. “We are delighted to have been among those who led the way and took the patient time to identify a winning combination before the rush.”

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