Europe’s legacy insurance market is consolidating fast, and DARAG Group’s latest deal shows the German-based run-off specialist has no intention of slowing down.
DARAG closed a portfolio transfer agreement (PTA) with Ambra Versicherung AG in late May. The acquired reinsurance book spans an underwriting period from the 1970s to the 2010s and covers international liability business.
Germany’s Federal Financial Supervisory Authority, BaFin, approved the transaction. AXA Liabilities Managers selected DARAG to acquire the book.
Tom Booth (pictured), DARAG’s CEO, said the deal reflects the breadth of what the group can offer counterparties looking for an exit.
“The completion of this deal, transferring a worldwide book, further expands our footprint and highlights the breadth of expertise we can offer our clients,” he said.
Booth added that giving partners the certainty to move on is central to what DARAG does.
“The confidence and reassurance we offer is vital to our partners, enabling them to concentrate on their primary business operations.”
The Ambra transaction did not happen in isolation. In December 2024, DARAG sold its North American and Bermuda operations to RiverStone Group. The move was designed to concentrate resources on its core European platform and free up capital for deals already in advanced stages at the time.
This strategic reset set the tone for what followed. DARAG announced four deals in the first five months of 2025 alone, spanning loss portfolio transfers and PTAs across multiple European jurisdictions.
Booth said the near-term pipeline pointed to 2025 becoming a record year for deal volume in the European market.
This record-year prediction is bearing out. In January 2026, DARAG finalized a PTA of Protector Forsikring’s Danish workers’ compensation portfolio, with transferred reserves of approximately €120 million. A separate loss portfolio transfer with another European carrier, completed around the same period, added reserves exceeding €120 million.
The Ambra deal adds another data point to that run. The liability portfolio covers business written across four decades. This scope reflects the long-tail complexity that run-off specialists are built to absorb. For carriers with discontinued books requiring active claims management over many years, the alternative is carrying the exposure indefinitely.
Booth said the group is not done. “We look forward to further opportunities in this space in future,” he said.
