Bermuda-based Enstar Group yesterday announced a $181 million agreement to buy North American life insurance operations of HSBC.It is the second acquisition agreement announced by the company in the space of nine days after last week’s deal to purchase US workers’ compensation insurance provider SeaBright.Under the agreement announced yesterday, Enstar will acquire all of the shares of Household Life Insurance Company of Delaware and HSBC Insurance Company of Delaware from Household Insurance Group Holding Company, an affiliate of HSBC Holdings plc. The deal is expected to be closed by the first quarter of next year.The companies have written various US and Canadian life insurance, including credit insurance, term life insurance, assumed reinsurance, corporate owned life insurance, and annuities.Enstar’s shares rose $1.59, or 1.7 percent to close on $95.42 in New York trading yesterday.Enstar, whose headquarters are based in Queen Street, Hamilton, is a run-off specialist which acquires insurance companies or insurance portfolios that have stopped writing new business.The company, which counts Goldman Sachs as a major investor, has quietly amassed a global empire of interests and had more than $6 billion in assets by the end of June this year. It is the biggest company in the world focused solely on run-off.“Whilst our core focus remains non-life property and casualty run-off, we are excited to further expand our portfolio of run-offs with this acquisition of closed-life insurance business from HSBC,” said Dominic Silvester, CEO of Enstar.“We recognise the confidence they are putting in Enstar by entrusting the insurance policies of their own customers to us. We have been studying closed-life insurance for a number of years — including through our small acquisition of Laguna Life Limited in 2011 — and we have expanded our knowledge and understanding of this business, which we see as an enhancement to our global run-off strategy.”Enstar said in a statement it expects to finance the purchase price through a combination of cash on hand and a drawing under its revolving credit facility.The base purchase price of $181 million will roll forward under the terms of the stock purchase agreement based upon changes to the capital and surplus of the acquired entities arising from the operation of the business prior to closing.Completion of the transaction is conditioned on, among other things, governmental and regulatory approvals and satisfaction of various customary closing conditions.