Bermuda-based run-off specialist Enstar Group Ltd. has completed the acquisition of AMP Ltd.'s Australia-based closed reinsurance and insurance operations.

Enstar and its subsidiary Enstar Australia Holdings Pty Ltd. made the acquisition for a net price of about $417 million (270.6 million euros). The purchase was financed using about $285 million from bank financing, $40 million from private equity fund JC Flowers II LP by way of non-voting equity participation, and $92 million from cash on hand.

When it announced its acquisition last December, Enstar said the bulk of the financing would come from "a major Australian bank". In a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Enstar said the bank financing was arranged with National Australia Bank Ltd. and HSH Nordbank A.G., London branch.

The purchased operations, known as Cobalt/Gordian, were put in run-off between 1999 and 2002. The sale represents AMP's complete exit from general insurance and reinsurance business. AMP is now focused on financial planning and advice, corporate and retail superannuation, retirement income and investment products, life insurance, banking and investment management.

Enstar, formerly Castlewood Holdings, acquires and manages insurance and reinsurance companies in run-off. It recently acquired a UK-based reinsurance company and its management services company for $31.2 million. Earlier in the year, it acquired Inter-Ocean Holdings, a Bermuda-based reinsurance group, for $57 million.