Kane, the largest global independent insurance manager, has announced the completion of the first phase of its integration of HSBC Insurance Management (HIM), which it acquired in June last year.Following this key acquisition, Kane, which has offices in Bermuda, has grown to become the fourth-largest captive insurance manager globally.As part of its growth plans for 2012 and beyond, Kane has raised additional funding from its principal shareholder, CBPE, a leading UK-based private equity investor.This has provided the company with the ability to open a new office in New York this month and to further enhance and invest in its product offering in its Life, Pensions and Investment administration business (LPI).This business is set to launch products in Europe, Asia and the Middle East in the first quarter of 2012.Since the acquisition of HIM, Kane has relocated its operations in Bermuda, Cayman, London and Vermont to new premises, launched its own global IT infrastructure and strengthened the management team to reflect its global reach.Further office relocations are planned for offices in Malta and Guernsey in early 2012.As part of the management team restructure Clive James, who was previously head of Aon’s Global Insurance Management business prior to joining Kane, has taken on the new role of group chief operating officer. Shaun Brook, previously Kane’s Middle East managing director, now heads up its operations across Europe and the Middle East.A key strategy is that the previous business unit heads and their teams from HIM have been retained to run and develop operations in Bermuda, Cayman and the USA.In addition, Kane has taken on Simon Hinshelwood, an experienced global financial services executive, to take over as group CEO from Stephen May, who will be leaving the company.The company said that it was optimistic about the opportunities in the captive management, insurance linked securities administration and LPI space for the year ahead, despite the challenges of the continuing economic uncertainties and a soft insurance market.