ANV Group Holdings has agreed to acquire automotive lending specialist Open Lending in an all-cash tender offer valuing the company at approximately $372 million.
The company will pay $3.15 per share for all outstanding shares of Open Lending common stock, a premium of approximately 78% to the company's 90-day volume weighted average price as of June 15. The transaction has been unanimously approved by Open Lending's board and is expected to close in the third quarter of 2026, subject to regulatory approvals.
Upon completion, Open Lending will be taken private and delisted from Nasdaq.
ANV is a Blackstone-backed MGA platform that only entered the market in late 2025. It was formed in December 2025 following a transaction between AmTrust Financial Services and Blackstone Credit and Insurance, under which the two parties partnered to spin off certain of AmTrust's MGAs and fee-based businesses in the US, UK and Continental Europe into a newly formed independent company.
The deal covered seven AmTrust subsidiaries – ANV Specialty, Risico, Collegiate, ANV Nordic, Arc Legal, Qualis and Abacus – operating across lines including cyber E&S, directors and officers, transaction risk, professional indemnity, legal expenses, mortgage and structured credit, income protection and accident and health. AmTrust retained a significant equity interest and a ten-year capacity agreement under which it continues to underwrite the existing books of business.
ANV has been active on M&A since its formation, adding Iris Insurance Brokers in March 2026.
Open Lending has operated for 25 years, providing loan analytics, risk-based pricing, risk modeling and default insurance to auto lenders throughout the United States. Its core Lenders Protection program uses proprietary data and automated decisioning to facilitate loans for near-prime and non-prime borrowers, structuring credit risk through insurance-backed mechanisms that allow financial institutions to expand lending while managing default exposure.
The model depends on accurate loss prediction at the near-prime end of the credit spectrum, precisely the segment that has come under the most pressure as auto delinquencies have risen.
That pressure is visible in the financials. In 2024, Open Lending reported total revenue of $24.0 million, a sharp decline from $117.5 million in 2023, primarily due to negative profit share adjustments as default rates in earlier loan vintages exceeded model assumptions.
Its stock dropped a further 9% in after-hours trading following Q4 2025 results in March 2026, when certified loans facilitated fell 25.9% year-on-year.
The $3.15 offer price represents a significant premium to recent trading levels, with the stock having spent much of 2025 and early 2026 below $2.00. ANV is, in effect, betting on a recovery in the underlying credit cycle and the durability of Open Lending's insurance-backed model once the delinquency wave passes.
The deal arrives against a backdrop of significant stress in the US automotive lending market.
The share of US auto loans 90 or more days past due climbed from roughly 3.8% in early 2023 to approximately 5.17% by Q4 2025, with more than 2.2 million vehicles repossessed during the year. According to Experian's State of the Automotive Finance Market report for Q4 2025, 30-day delinquencies across all auto loans rose to 2.54%, up from 2.45% a year earlier.
Subprime borrowers made up 15.31% of total vehicle financing in Q4 2025, up from 14.54% in Q4 2024 and their largest share since 2021, as lenders and consumers adapted to affordability pressures by extending loan terms. The average cost of a new car has exceeded $50,000, with new car loan rates averaging around 8% and used car rates around 13% as of early 2026. Edmunds data from Q4 2025 found that nearly 20% of new car buyers now carry a monthly payment of $1,000 or more.
The broader US credit insurance market generated an estimated $3.73 billion in premiums in 2025, driven partly by rising default risks, giving it a 31% share of the global market. Open Lending's niche within that market remains relatively underpenetrated. For ANV, which already carries mortgage and structured credit exposure through its Qualis subsidiary, adding a scaled auto credit platform extends its insurance-backed credit strategy into a new segment with a documented pipeline of institutional demand from credit unions and community banks.
Adam Karkowsky, chairman and CEO of ANV, said: "This transaction directly advances our insurance-backed credit strategy, and we see significant value creation ahead, both from the business on its own merits and through the opportunities it creates across our broader platform."
Financial Technology Partners advised Open Lending, with Jones Day as legal counsel. Evercore advised ANV, with Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton and Garrison providing legal counsel.
