Fidelis buys out CVC at a 23% discount to book

Fidelis Insurance Holdings has agreed to buy CVC Falcon Holdings out completely. The specialty insurer and reinsurer will repurchase 8,597,170 shares — the entire CVC position. The price is $19.00 a share. That puts the total at $163,346,230, according to an announcement covered by Reinsurance News. Once the deal closes, CVC's ownership interest in the group will be zero. The report does not give a closing date.

At that price, the buyback lands roughly 23% below Fidelis' year-end diluted book value per common share. The comparable year-end figure was $24.61. CEO Dan Burrows called the transaction "a compelling value" and said it is expected to deliver "meaningful accretion" to book value per share and return on average equity. The arithmetic is direct: the company is retiring sponsor stock at a discount to its own balance sheet, and the shareholders left standing capture the difference. Burrows added that Fidelis appreciates CVC's "longstanding support and investment."

CVC's departure closes a founding-investor chapter. Daniel Brand, a CVC partner, praised Fidelis' management as "talented and accomplished" and wished the group continued success. Sidley Austin advised Fidelis on the repurchase. The buyback lands alongside a rebrand: Fidelis has declared its intention to change its name to Pelagos Insurance Capital Limited and expects to trade on the NYSE under PLGO as soon as May 2026, subject to regulatory and legal approvals. The two moves point the same way — out of the private-equity founding era and into a standalone identity.

For a carrier that prices risk for a living, buying back its own stock at a 23% discount to book is the capital-market analogue of a good underwriting year: the return is locked in before the deal closes. A sponsor can sell to the public or back to the company; CVC chose the buyback, and continuing shareholders capture the discount. Whether Pelagos keeps the underwriting discipline that built the book is the follow-up worth watching.