C&F Financial Corporation, the holding company for C&F Bank, has completed the sale of its interest in Bearing Insurance Group LLC to an unaffiliated third party, effective May 1, 2026.
The stake was held through C&F Insurance Services LLC, a subsidiary of C&F Bank. The corporation estimates a pre-tax gain of approximately $8.3 million from the transaction, which will be recorded in its second-quarter 2026 financial results.
Bearing, an independent brokerage headquartered in Glen Allen, Virginia, writes a broad mix of property, liability, business auto, workers' compensation, employee benefits and personal lines.
Its own corporate history traces its roots to 1999, when a consortium of Virginia community banks established it as Bankers Insurance LLC before rebranding the agency as Bearing Insurance Group in 2024, indicating that C&F was among several founding bank owners rather than a sole investor.
Following the divestiture, C&F Financial carried out a strategic restructuring of part of its available-for-sale (AFS) securities portfolio to offset a portion of the gain.
Under the restructuring, the corporation sold $72.6 million in book value of AFS securities carrying a weighted average yield of 1.40%, representing roughly 14.7% of its total securities portfolio. It then acquired approximately $67.8 million in AFS securities with a weighted average yield of about 4.70%.
The repositioning is expected to generate a pre-tax loss of approximately $7.1 million, also to be reflected in second-quarter results. The corporation estimates the loss will be recovered over roughly 3.3 years.
On an annualized basis, C&F Financial projects the restructuring will lift earnings per share by approximately $0.51 and improve net interest margin by about 9 basis points.
While the loss tied to the portfolio repositioning is expected to have no effect on total consolidated equity or tangible book value per share, the gain from the Bearing sale is projected to add an estimated $1.90 per share to tangible book value after taxes.
The transaction places C&F within a steady run of community and regional lenders monetizing insurance subsidiaries amid an enduring brokerage M&A boom.
American Banker has previously reported that sellers have pursued such deals to "monetize noncore assets to raise capital," pointing to Eastern Bankshares' $510 million sale of its agency to Gallagher and Truist's $1.95 billion sale of a 20% stake in its brokerage to Stone Point Capital, both finalized in 2023.
Tom Cherry, president and CEO of C&F Financial, said the company viewed the divestiture as a chance to reposition its balance sheet.
"We elected to use this opportunity offered by the sale of our membership interest in Bearing to proactively reposition our securities portfolio, which we anticipate will provide meaningful earnings improvement and enhanced net interest margin moving forward," he said.
The combined effect of the two actions is intended to strengthen the corporation's earnings profile while preserving capital, with the Bearing proceeds funding the shift into higher-yielding securities.
