OneBeacon Insurance Group is said to be exploring a sale, and there is speculation it could prove attractive to a US buyer if that country’s tax rates are lowered in the near future.

Alternatively, it could be an target for a Bermudian-based insurer seeking diversification or to scale up in size.

Bloomberg today said the speciality insurer controlled by White Mountains Insurance Group Ltd was exploring a sale. The information was based on people familiar with the matter.

The Insurance Insider said it understood the insurer was to be auctioned, with Credit Suisse appointed to run the full sales process.

A spokeswoman for OneBeacon told The Royal Gazette the company had no comment to make on the matter.

Representatives for Credit Suisse declined to comment, while White Mountains did not immediately respond to a request for comment, according to Bloomberg.

US President-elect Donald Trump and his incoming administration are seeking to lower US corporate tax rates from 35 per cent to about 20, or even 15 per cent. That would change some market dynamics, a point highlighted by Gary Ransom, an analyst at Connecticut-based equity research firm Dowling & Partners.

Speaking on Tuesday at a conference held by the Insurance Information Institute in New York, he pointed out that in the past buyers in large insurance deals tended to come from lower-tax jurisdictions, such as Bermuda and Switzerland.

But he believes the US can be a significant player again, and mentioned last month’s deal by Liberty Mutual Holdings to acquire Bermudian-based Ironshore. According to Bloomberg, he said: “Suddenly, US companies, if you assume a lower tax rate, they can buy Bermuda companies.”

Bloomberg also reported that OneBeacon explored a sale in early 2015, with interest coming from China’s Fosun International, according to people familiar with the matter at the time.

Meanwhile, Insurance Insider said OneBeacon has been available for acquisition for a number of years, according to banking sources. It noted that Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance, one of Japan’s big three insurers, is understood to be interested in an onshore US acquisition.

Last year White Mountains, which owns about 75 per cent of One Beacon, sold its Bermudian-domiciled financial services group Symetra to Sumitomo Life Insurance of Japan, while its reinsurance firm Sirius was sold in a $2.6 billion deal to CM International, the Singaporean-based arm of China Minsheng Investment Corporation.

OneBeacon earned $28.6 million in the third quarter of 2016, having made a loss of $13.2 million in the same period of 2015.

The company’s shares were trading at $16.60, up 9.5 per cent, on the New York Stock Exchange at 4.17pm, giving the insurer a market capitalisation of $1.56 billion.

Disclosure: the author of this article owns shares in OneBeacon.