Xerox Corp. said Wednesday it will sell its Crum & Forster Holdings Inc. subsidiary to Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. for $680 million, completing its five-year exit from the financial-services industry.
Fairfax, a Toronto insurance and investment-management company, will pay Xerox $565 million in cash for the commercial property and casualty insurer and assume $115 million of its debt.
The purchase is the latest by Fairfax Chairman Prem Watsa, who has built a reputation for buying and turning around insurers.
Xerox expects about $75 million in costs from the sale of the Morristown, N.J.-based insurer. It also will take a charge of less than $200 million in the first quarter related to earlier sales of three units.
“They can finally now go forward and concentrate on selling copiers and digital products, which they do very well,” said Standard & Poor’s Corp. analyst James Corridore.
While “it took a long time” to sell the financial businesses, Xerox was determined to “get the right amount of money for each of these units,” he said.
