By Chris Munro

May 13 - (The Insurer) - Maiden Holdings could receive up to $17.9 million from its USQRisk investment following the latter's acquisition by Ryan Specialty, CEO Patrick Haveron said in Maiden's Q1 2025 earnings print.

The Bermuda-based business also confirmed that its tie-up with Kestrel Group to form a new specialty program group remains on course to close in Q2.

Back in 2020, Maiden provided $3.25 million of seed capital to USQRisk, a deal that the MGA at the time said would “accelerate (its) expansion”.

Ryan Specialty announced in April that it had entered into a definitive agreement to acquire alternative risk and facilities-focused MGA USQRisk.

At the time, Pat Ryan-led Ryan Specialty did not disclose how much it was going to pay for USQRisk. However, in its latest 10-Q filing issued in early May, Ryan Specialty detailed that it had paid $30.5 million of cash consideration for USQRisk.

Haveron said the company has already received $4.3 million from USQRisk’s sale, and could receive a further $13.6 million.

The USQRisk sale forms part of Maiden’s ongoing efforts to reduce its alternative investment portfolio. In December it announced the sale of its international insurance services (IIS) platform, comprising Swedish subsidiaries Maiden General Försäkrings and Maiden Life Försäkrings. The combination with Kestrel also forms part of its strategic pivot.

“Including asset sales finalised early in the second quarter, our completed investments have yielded total distributions of $188.1 million,” Haveron said.

“Including the USQRisk transaction, these investments, many of which were sold earlier than anticipated to accommodate our strategic pivot, have to date produced an internal rate of return of 12.3% and a multiple of capital of 1.30x, above our targeted returns.

“These results give us confidence that the remainder of this portfolio will continue to deliver the returns we originally set out to achieve,” Haveron stated.

In its Q1 2025 earnings announcement, Maiden said the sale of the IIS operation is proceeding, while the Kestrel partnership remains subject to customary closing conditions, including the approval of listing of the shares of the combined company on the Nasdaq (subject to official notice of issuance) and regulatory signoff.

“The company presently targets completion of both of these transactions during the second quarter of 2025,” Maiden stated.