No. 31

Fremont Acquires Industrial Indemnity

In a major effort to broaden its reach outside California, Santa Monica-based Fremont General Corp., a workers compensation insurer, announced plans in May to purchase Industrial Indemnity Holdings, a subsidiary of Xerox Corp., for $444 million in cash and assumed debt.

The purchase, which closed in August 1997, is expected to increase revenues at Fremont one of the nation’s biggest workers comp insurers by 41 percent, to an estimated $1.2 billion annually, according to Fremont.

The purchase will extend Fremont’s reach into the Alaska, Texas and Utah markets. It would also cement Fremont’s place as the No. 1 provider of workers comp insurance in Arizona.

Many saw the sale of Industrial Indemnity as a move by Xerox to get out of the insurance and financial services business and to concentrate on its core business of developing and producing document-processing machines.