Specialty insurer is open for business

A startup insurance firm in Richmond activated its first policies Tuesday after getting an A- rating from a rating agency. And it hopes to be profitable by the end of this year. The Kinsale Insurance Company, which has around  40 employees at the Paragon Place headquarters in Henrico County, hopes to grow in the specialty insurance industry, which sells insurance to companies that can’t get it from standard companies because of risk factors (for example, a physician who has been sued for malpractice several times). Kinsale sells its policies through brokers and generally not directly to businesses looking for insurance products. The company, which raised $80 million, sells the sort of policies that cover both property and businesses but that other companies don’t want to sell. Specialty insurance is the most profitable segment of the insurance industry, said Mike Kehoe, the founder and CEO. “With high-risk accounts, if the underwriter knows what he or she is doing, it provides a high margin to the risk-bearer,” Kehoe said. “Companies get paid to take risk.” Starting an insurance company is not a simple endeavor. The industry is highly regulated and a company must show cash reserves to cover claims. But adding another hassle for Kinsale was the fact that the company had to fight what Kehoe called a “nuisance” lawsuit from a local competitor. For six years, Kehoe was the boss at James River Insurance. He helped get the company going in 2002 and helped it grow. He also helped sell it for $575 million in 2007. But James River said in a lawsuit that Kehoe committed espionage and unlawfully recruited its employees when he started Kinsale. The case was settled in February when James River agreed to pay Kinsale $377,000. (You can read the settlement here). That’s less than the legal fees to fight the case, Kehoe said.

Members might bail out Federal Club

A group of members at an upscale golf club in Hanover County has started studying how to buy the golf course if the current owners/operators can’t turn the business around. According to two members at the Federal Club who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the early stage of the negotiations, the members are hiring a lawyer and negotiating with the Bank of Essex, which is owed about $8 million and has asked the bankruptcy court to end the bankruptcy protection. If that happened, the bank would likely foreclose on the course and operate it until it can find a buyer. The $9 million, Arnold Palmer-designed course opened three years ago and has never been profitable. It is currently not paying its loan to the Bank of Essex. On March 24, a judge will rule on whether the Federal Club can remain in bankruptcy protection and continue to stave off creditors. (You can read more on that in an RBS story here. ) “Hopefully the current owners can emerge from bankruptcy protection. But from what we see in the public filings, we are concerned they may not be able to do that,” said one member.

Banking on an advertising blitz

Love you? We hardly know you. Last month Union First Market Bank launched a marketing blitz to increase awareness and curiosity by asking, “Is it so wrong to love a bank?” Ads for the new entity (called “Union” for short) include at least two billboards along interstates 64 and 95, as well as two TV spots and a sideline ad at the Richmond Coliseum during the Colonial Athletic Association’s men’s basketball tournament over the weekend. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1slKnTzYmc[/youtube] [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pd2cpbUSrvE[/youtube] “Nowadays, banks are not seen very well in the eyes of the public. We want to let people know we are not one of those big Wall Street banks,” explained Olen Thomas, a vice president and chief marketing officer at the bank. Thomas said the bank, which is spending more than $500,000 on the campaign, would start airing more ads on TV and in print March 22, when ...

Would a weekly video work for RBS?

For about a year I’ve wondered if we could do a weekly video about local business news. TheBigMoney.com, which is a business site for the online magazine Slate, has just launched something similar. So…might it work in Richmond? I sort of imagine our version also having a female anchor.

Internships website sold

A Richmond website that aims to be the Monster.com of college internships was sold to a California firm for an undisclosed sum. At the end of 2009, Richmond entrepreneur Mason Gates sold Internships.com to Arc International Group. Three months ago, the company had three employees. Now there are 50 employees working on the project including Gates, who flies to California every month to meet with the new directors. “I’m helping with my market knowledge with the folks that have deep technology and social media knowledge,” Gates said.

Bank makes play to take over golf course

The biggest lender to an upscale golf course in Hanover County wants to take the course back from the owners/operators. Essex Bank, which is owed about $8 million and is not receiving payments, filed a motion in bankruptcy court Wednesday asking a judge to remove the Federal Club from bankruptcy protection. “The Bank intends to assume management of the Golf Course, the surrounding property, and intends to fund the Golf Course’s on-going operations until a buyer can be found,” the filing says.

Thoughts from the S. Hemisphere

I have been in Quito, Ecuador for the last week meeting with one of our original editors (he's an American living down here) and also trying to meet the newspaper management at several of the big dailies. Quito has more than 2 million residents and a bustling business community. This country makes a lot of sense for our first international expansion because the economy is growing very quickly here -- I don´t have figures in front of me but there are kids everywhere. I have a hunch they may benefit from all we´ve learned in Richmond on both the advertising, data gathering and news operation. Quito also does some things that would greatly benefit Richmond. One simple improvement would be dedicated bike lanes. They would cost almost nothing to put in and could make the downtown area much more bike friendly, which could cut down ...

The Herd: New hires and promotions for 2.10.10

Departures: Two directors were laid off from the Historical Society of Virginia to save money. James C. Kelly, director of museums, was let go.  Kelly’s responsibilities will now be handled by E. Lee Shepard, vice president for collections. COO Robert F. Strohm was also laid off. Stohm’s responsibilities will be handled by the new vice president for operations, Richard S. V. Heiman. Big Companies: James A. Marcum, worked as the head of Circuit City when it was dismantled,  Henrico County-based Circuit City Stores Inc. as the retailer's last chief executive is now the CEO of Central Parking Corp. You can read more about it in a ...

Is Chesterfield sports facility a quixotic quest?

(Editor's Note: This story is several pages long. To keep reading, click the "next page" link at the bottom.) Each time Steve Burton talks about SportsQuest, his plan sounds more ambitious. It has been his dream for more than seven years to build the Mecca of sports facilities – complete with turf soccer fields, an indoor bicycle track, a 5,000-seat arena, minor league teams, swimming facilities and more – devoted to every level of competition and training. And as he gets closer to breaking ground on the 250-acre Chesterfield County project, his plan is getting even bolder, with underwater cameras to film swim meets and broadcast them over the Internet, and family entertainment venues. “People will come to SportsQuest for a tournament, and while they are here, they will have a membership,” he said during a recent interview in the Boulders office park, where he has set up shop inside the offices of Timmons Engineering. “Every night there will be a Bonnie Raitt concert or a chili cook-off.”

Latest hospital financials look healthy

Treating sick patients is a healthy business, or at least it was in 2008, the most recent year for which audited hospital financials are available. It’s likely that with higher unemployment and investments losses, area hospitals aren’t faring quite as well now. CJW Medical Center, with campuses at Chippenham Hospital and Johnston-Willis Hospital, is the most profitable hospital in Richmond by a landslide. The hospital, which is owned by HCA, reported profits of $69.5 million in the fiscal year that ran from Jan. 1, 2008 to Dec. 31, 2008, according to data collected and analyzed by Virginia Health Information. (Of interest to readers who follow the business of health care, HCA announced last week that it would pay its private equity owners a $1.75 billion dividend. Read more about that in a Wall Street Journal story here.) VCU Medical Center was next, bringing in $52 million in profits. (Technically VCU is a nonprofit, so its excess revenue must be reinvested in the organization and not paid to shareholders, as was case with HCA.)

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