Insurer XL Group to buy Britain’s Catlin for 2.79B

Bermuda-based insurer XL Group Plc will pay about 2.79 billion pounds ($4.22 billion) for Catlin Group Ltd, operator of the biggest syndicate in the Lloyd's of London insurance market. Catlin, which provides insurance for everything from flooding to kidnapping, would pay investors a 22 pence final dividend, the companies said in a joint statement. The British underwriter had said in December that it would not pay a final dividend when it announced an approach worth 2.53 billion pounds from XL Group.