This Canadian claims vendor could be bought by CoreLogic

Calgary claims software vendor Symbility Solutions Inc. is one step closer to being taken over by property risk data provider CoreLogic Inc.

Shareholders of the publicly-traded Symbility will meet Dec. 13 to vote on a $160-million acquisition offer by CoreLogic. Symbility’s offerings include Symbility Property, a claims processing and estimating software product for property and casualty insurers.

The deal is expected to close later this year or early in 2019, said Steve Brewer, executive for insurance and spatial solutions at CoreLogic, in an interview.

“We view Symbility as the leading innovator when it comes to claims automation, workflow and customer experience,” said Brewer.

Irvine, Calif.-based CoreLogic is a competitor of Verisk Analytics Inc., according to a CoreLogic securities filing. CoreLogic provides data on properties, to P&C insurers, on hazards such as wind and flood.

CoreLogic announced Nov. 9 its Canada Flood Risk Score.

CoreLogic also provides workflow for underwriting property insurance.

“A lot of Canadian insurers use our product to pull in attributes of a home or business,” said Brewer.

CoreLogic owns 28% of Symbility’s shares. CoreLogic has offered to buy the remaining Symbility shares. Symbility’s board of directors is in favour of the deal, which requires shareholder approval. The Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench approved the Dec. 13 special shareholders’ meeting, Symbility said Monday.

“We have already integrated some of our underwriting products into the claims workflow because we are already partners with Symbility,” Brewer said.

“This deal would have us more fully aligned under one roof. It would allow us to continue to advance that solution to the market.”

Brewer could not comment on whether there would be any personnel changes or office closures as a result of the deal.

One-third of Symbility’s shares in 2012 were acquired by Marshall & Swift/Boekh LLC, which in turn was acquired in 2014 by CoreLogic.

Marshall & Swift/Boekh had a five-year agreement to refrain from acquiring more shares in Symbilty. After that agreement expired in 2017, CoreLogic made an offer to acquire Symbility for 60 cents a share in cash. A series of meetings followed in which Symbility officials tried to negotiate for a higher price.

In 2018, Symbility officials were not prepared to negotiate exclusively with CoreLogic and went looking for other potential buyers, which Symbility is not naming. Prospective buyers offered two bids in addition to the one received from CoreLogic, Symbility said in its securities filing Monday.

CoreLogic made another offer for 61.5 cents a share. Symbility’s board is unanimously recommending that Symbility shareholders accept this offer, Symbility announced Oct. 22.

The agreement to be bought out by CoreLogic includes the right for Symbility to consider other acquisition offers. If Symbility gets a better offer, then CoreLogic would have five days to match that offer.