Liberty Mutual has agreed to acquire specialist international insurer Ironshore from Chinese conglomerate Fosun International.

The transaction is set to be completed during the first half of next year, pending regulatory approvals, with the purchase price estimated at $US3 billion ($4.02 billion).

Ironshore’s management team and brand will remain in place.

“Ironshore has a track record of profitably underwriting global and diverse specialty risks insurance and is an ideal complement to Liberty Mutual, providing additional scale, expertise, innovation and market relationships to our $US5 billion ($6.7 billion) global specialty business,” said Liberty Mutual Insurance Chairman and CEO David Long.

Ironshore has 800 employees located in 15 countries, including Australia.

Fosun completed its acquisition of Ironshore in November last year.

More details in our regular bulletin on Monday.