U.S. insurers concentrated their M&A activities domestically in 2007, especially in the property-casualty and health insurance and managed care sectors, and were much less active on the global stage, according to a new study by Conning Research and Consulting.

"Global insurance industry acquisitions in 2007 were driven by non-U.S. insurers-primarily Western European firms-who clearly see value in this market," said Sherry Manetta, director at Conning Research & Consulting. "In fact, only 20 percent of primary and reinsurer transactions involved a U.S. entity at all. Those few U.S. insurers who were active internationally made acquisitions to build share in existing markets rather than entering new countries."

The Conning Research study, "Global Insurance Mergers & Acquisitions: U.S. Insurers on the Sidelines" analyzes Conning's proprietary database of transactions and presents trends across industry segments and regions. Coverage includes property-casualty, life-annuity, health insurance and managed care, and distribution and service firm transactions.

"We expect that U.S. firms will continue to be domestically focused in their acquisitions, and will be attractive acquisition targets in 2008, due in part to the soft dollar and, in the property-casualty sector, to the softening underwriting market," said Stephan Christiansen, director of research at Conning. "In addition to these factors, U.S. insurance company stock prices are substantially off their highs of a year ago, which makes it economical for an acquirer to pay a premium over a stock's market price."