BB&T Insurance Services Buys Woodbury & Co. on the Carolina Coasts
April 3, 2014 by Marie Suszynski, Best's News Service correspondent
RALEIGH, N.C. – BB&T Insurance Services Inc., the sixth-largest insurance broker in the United States and internationally, has acquired an agency on the Carolina coasts.
BB&T bought Woodbury & Co. and plans to combine its existing agencies in Wilmington, N.C. and Myrtle Beach, S.C. with the company.
The transaction is expected to be completed April 1. Terms were not disclosed.
Founded in 1932 and with more than 50 employees, Woodbury offers insurance throughout the Carolinas.
The agency provides commercial property/casualty insurance, employee benefits, individual life and health insurance, personal lines and professional liability protection. Its commercial lines staff has expertise in construction, habitational risks, trucking, manufacturing, medical, financial institutions, hospitality and inland and ocean marine.
Eugene Woodbury, the company’s president, and Carolyn Finley, its commercial lines manager, have both been with Woodbury for more than 50 years. They will both join BB&T’s management team.
The deal will add to BB&T’s Carolinas franchise. “We could not be more pleased to welcome one of the oldest and most highly regarded agencies in the Southeast to our team,” BB&T Insurance Holdings Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Wade Reece said in a statement.
Raleigh, N.C.-based BB&T Insurance Holdings, which is owned by BB&T Corp. (NYSE: BBT), has more than 100 agencies through subsidiaries BB&T Insurance Services, BB&T Insurance Services of California and McGriff, Seibels & Williams.
BB&T had $1.56 billion in total revenues in 2012, according to Best’s Review Magazine’s ranking.
During the fourth quarter of 2013, BB&T Corp. reported a 29% jump in its insurance services segment’s net income, bringing it to $49 million. For the full year, insurance services had a net income of $167 million, up from $144 million the previous year (Best’s News Service, Jan. 20, 2014).
In 2012, BB&T bought Crump Life Insurance Services and Crump Property/Casualty Insurance Services for about $570 million (Best’s News Service, Feb. 3, 2012).
On the afternoon of March 28, shares of BB&T Corp. were trading at $40.01, up 0.81% from the previous close.
