Category Archives: Financial Services

Specialty Insurance company appoints new CFO

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Mark Haushill, the CFO of Skyward Specialty Insurance, has announced he will retire at the end of March 2027. He will be replaced by Deputy CFO Taryn McHarg.

Skyward is based in the Memorial City area of Houston and has a market capitalization of $2.5 billion. The company went public in January 2023 at a stock price of $15 per share. It now trades close to $60.

Skyward traces its origins to 2007 when Stephen Wray formed Southwest Insurance Partners. He had previously taken HCC Insurance Holdings public before leaving in 2006. In 2010 Southwest Insurance merged with Delos Insurance to form Houston International Insurance Group. The company rebranded as Skyward in 2020, the same year that Mr. Wray stepped down as CEO.

It specializes in niche areas of Property and Casualty Insurance, particularly harder-to-place risk (such as power generation plants or professional liability exposure). The company tries to minimize its underwriting in commoditized insurance markets that are regulated by states.

In January this year, the company paid $555 million for Apollo, a US centric specialty underwriting platform operating at Lloyds of London. Ms. McHarg was the CFO of Apollo before the acquisition.

Mr Haushill, who is 64, became CFO of Skyward in 2015. Prior to that he was the CFO at two other publicly-traded insurance companies. After he steps down as CFO, he will remain as a Senior Advisor through December 2027 with an annualized base salary of $250,000.

The new CFO

Ms. McHarg is an Australian citizen who joined Apollo in May 2022 as CFO. She started her career at Ernst & Young in Melbourne, Australia before joining Bupa as an internal auditor. Bupa is a private medical insurer that began in the United Kingdom before expanding internationally.  She moved to London in 2014 when she was promoted to Group Chief Internal Auditor. She later became the CFO for all international markets for Bupa, before leaving for Apollo.

Compensation details for Ms. McHarg for her new role will be determined in the first quarter of 2027.

SEC filing – 8-K – Skyward CFO appointment

 

Corebridge Financial in $22 billion all-stock merger

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Corebridge Financial is to merge with Equitable Holdings in a $22 billion all-stock transaction. The combined business will take the Equitable name. The corporate headquarters will be in Houston, which is where Corebridge is based.

Corebridge shareholders will hold 51% of the combined entity, Equitable 49%. Marc Costantini, the CEO of Corebridge will serve as the CEO of the combined business. Robin Raju, Equitable CFO, will be the CFO of the combined company.



Corebridge went public in 2022 as a carve-out of the retirement services and life insurance businesses of AIG. It is the leading provider of annuities for individual retirement plans and term life insurance.

Equitable is the leading provider of 403 (b) retirement plans for employees in public schools. It also has a 67% stake in AllianceBernstein, a wealth management firm.

Both companies have traded at a discount compared to larger companies such as MetLife ($46 billion market cap) and Prudential ($33 billion). Part of the rationale of the merger is reduced costs of capital through increased scale.

Mr. Costantini, who is based out of the New Jersey of Corebridge, only became the CEO of the company in December 2025. He previously worked for Manulife, Munich Re and Guardian Life.

In October 2025, the current CEO of Corebridge, Elias Habayeb, announced his resignation to become the CFO at Everest Group, effective May 2026. He is also based in the New York area.

The combined company expects to save $500 million in pre-tax expense synergies by the end of 2028, though the company believes there will be larger revenue gains through cross-selling Corebridge, Equitable and AllianceBernstein products through the various channels and agents that the companies operate.

The deal is expected to close in late 2026

Corebridge – Equitable Investor Presentation

 

Prosperity Bank to acquire Stellar Bank for $2 billion

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Prosperity Bancshares has agreed to acquire Stellar Bancorp for $2 billion. Both banks have their headquarters in Houston. Approximately 70% of the consideration is in stock, with 30% in cash. The proforma ownership is 84% Prosperity and 16% Stellar.

In total, Prosperity Bank has 321 locations, while Stellar has 52. While Prosperity Bank has more branches in the greater Houston area than Stellar (59 to 33), most of Prosperity’s branches are in the suburbs, while most of Stellar’s branches are within the City of Houston. Stellar is also the number one bank in the Beaumont area.

Once the deal closes, Prosperity will be the second largest Texas-based bank by asset value (just behind Cullen/Frost).

Stellar Bank was formed in 2022 from the $1.5 billion from the all-stock merger of Allegiance Bank and CBTX. Both those banks had started out in 2007 (Allegiance in Houston, CBTX in Beaumont).

Prosperity has been on an acquisition spree recently. At the beginning of this month, it closed on a deal to acquire American Bank ($322 million, 18 branches around Corpus Christi). In October, the company announced it would acquire Texas Partners Bank ($269 million, 11 branches around San Antonio)

The deal is expected to close at the end of the second quarter. Prosperity has assumed $77 million in cost savings, with 25% generated in 2026.

Prosperity – Investor Presentation

Cadence Bank to be acquired for $7.4 billion

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Cadence Bank has agreed to be acquired by Huntington Bank for $7.4 billion in an all-stock transaction. Huntington, based in Ohio, has been expanding rapidly into the southern US states. Just last week it closed on its deal to acquire Dallas-based Veritex Bank for $1.9 billion.



The current incarnation of Cadence was the result of a $6 billion merger in 2021 between Cadence Bank and BancorpSouth. This was an interesting mix of the old and the new. Bancorp was formed in 1876 and was a community bank with 325 branches in the Southeast.

Cadence was formed in 2009 by banking industry veterans who helped grow Amegy Bank before it was sold to Zions Bancorporation in 2005. Cadence had more commercial banking expertise. It also had branches in areas where Bancorp wasn’t, such as Georgia and around Tampa.  The merger resulted in dual headquarters in Houston and Tupelo, Mississippi.

The acquisition brings Huntington into 8 new states (Georgia, Florida, Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, Missouri, Louisiana and Tennessee).  The bank will have 1,450 branches in 21 states. In Texas, it will be the 8th largest bank by deposits, but 5th largest in the Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth markets.

Huntington has identified $365 million of pre-tax cost synergies, which represents 30% of Cadence’s total cash non-interest expense. It has also identified, but not quantified revenue synergies.

Dan Rollins, the Chair and CEO of Cadence and two other Cadence Board members will join the Huntington Board.

The deal is expected to close in Q1 2026.

Huntington Bank – Investor Presentation

Houston resident pleads guilty in $40m fraud scheme

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Bun Khath, a 43-year-old Houston resident, has pleaded guilty to laundering proceeds from a $40 million fraud scheme.

Khath was indicted in July 2023 with three other Houston residents for the scheme that ran from 2016 through to 2021. A fifth person was later indicted and has reached a plea deal. Khath operated as a loan broker, including for a time at Southwestern Business Capital (“SBC”). Two others indicted, the owner of SBC, and a small healthcare business owner, are awaiting trial.

The last person indicted, Hugo Villanueva, a tax preparer, remains a fugitive at-large.



The victims of the fraud were banks such as Third Coast, Iberiabank, Frost, BB&T, Moody and Simmons.

The scheme worked as follows.

  • Small business owners would approach the loan brokers about obtaining a business loan.
  • The brokers would obtain the real tax returns of the owners.
  • The defendants would create fraudulent personal and corporate tax returns for the business and its owner that inflated incomes. Documents were also falsely notarized.
  • In some cases, they also created a fraudulent promissory note, a statement of payoff and an equipment purchase agreement between the small business and SBC.
  • The fraudulent documents and the loan package were sent to the bank
  • After the bank approved the loan, the bank sent the loan proceeds to SBC
  • Funds were distributed from SBC to the defendants.

The original indictment listed 9 fraudulent loans, totaling $10 million between 2017-2019 though the press release refers to $40 million over a longer period.

U.S. District Judge Keith Ellison will impose sentencing April 29. At that time, Khath faces up to 10 years in federal prison and a $250,000 possible fine or twice the amount involved in the transaction.

https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdtx/pr/houston-resident-pleads-guilty-laundering-proceeds-40m-fraud-scheme

 

Houston insurance company completes $134 million IPO

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Skyward Specialty Insurance Group has completed its upsized Initial Public Offering, raising $134 million at a $588 million market capitalization. Its shares ended the week at $19.10 after opening at $15 (ticker SKWD).



The company, which has its head office in the Memorial City area, specializes in commercial property and casualty insurance. The company tries to target niche markets not well served by the mainstream carriers. For example, its Industry Solutions unit focuses on Construction, Energy and Specialty Trucking.

For the nine months ended September 2022, the company had net written premiums of $496 million. Its combined ratio (losses plus expenses) was 97.8% for 2021.

The company was formed in 2007 by Stephen Way. Mr. Wray formed the company shortly after he left HCC Insurance Holdings (which he also founded), a publicly-traded company. Like many companies at the time, HCC was caught using incorrect measurement dates for pricing stock options.  HCC was acquired by Tokio Marine in 2015.

Canadian firm Westaim took a 44% stake in the company in 2014 and in 2020 replaced Mr. Wray with Andrew Robinson as CEO. Shortly afterwards, the company changed its name from Houston International Insurance Group to Skyward Specialty Insurance Group. Mr. Wray is no longer on the board.

CFO Mark Haushill joined the company in 2015. He has been the CFO at two other publicly-traded insurance companies

SEC filing – Propectus

Former manager of Prairie View Credit Union indicted for embezzlement

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Gloria Hall, who was the Manager of Prairie View Credit Union (“PVCU’) for 20 years, has been indicted on charges of embezzlement. PVCU was founded in 1937 to serve the Prairie View A&M University and surrounding community.

The discovery of the alleged fraud resulted in the National Credit Union Administration liquidating PVCU (assets $3 million) and forcing a merger with Cy-Fair Federal Credit Union (assets $340 million) earlier this year.



Hall joined PVCU as a loan officer in 1988, but left in 1990 to work for the University. She returned in 2000 as manager of the credit union.

During her 20 years as manager, PVCU did not offer online banking and do not have an ATM. Hall single-handedly approved all loans and personally communicated with major account holders. She controlled access to all books and records and controlled the information provided to the PVCU Board of Directors.

From 2010 to August 2020, Hall utilized 34 member accounts, mostly belonging to elderly members, to carry out various fraudulent schemes. She allegedly created 58 false loans in the names of relatives and friends and transferred $791,000 from elderly credit union members to those relatives and friends. When loans were due, she would create more false loans to repay the amounts due. It’s not clear from the indictment how much of the $791,000 was lost.

Between November 2017 and September 2019, Hall also allegedly embezzled  $211,563 from two elderly account holders and transferring the monies to other account holders. Between 2016 and 2020 she also allegedly withdrew $76,772 from account holders and used the money for her personal benefit.

The National Credit Union Administration estimated total losses to be $200,000.

Hall is charged with three counts of embezzlement by a credit union employee and one count of making false entries in the financial records of the credit union.

If convicted, Hall faces up to 30 years in prison and a possible $1 million maximum fine.

https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdtx/pr/former-manager-prairie-view-federal-credit-union-indicted-embezzlement-charges

Corebridge $1.7 billion IPO largest in US this year

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Corebridge Financial, a carve-out of AIG’s retirement services and life insurance business, has announced the pricing of its Initial Public Offering (IPO). 80 million shares will be offered at $21 per share, the bottom end of the range.  The $1.7 billion raised is the largest IPO this year in the US.



Corebridge manages $358 billion in client assets as of June 30, 2022. It is a leading provider of annuities for individual retirement plans (1.2 million policies) and retirement plans for education, healthcare and government sectors (1.9 million customers).

The shares being sold are about 12% of the total float. AIG will own 78% of the shares while Blackrock will own 10%. All the proceeds will go to AIG.

Blackrock acquired its shares in 2021 for $2.2 billion. That was part of a deal where AIG agreed to transfer the management of $50 billion of Corebridge’s client assets to Blackrock. That figure will rise to $93 billion by 2027.

Houston head office

Corebridge has its head office on Allen Parkway in Houston. That connection is because the life insurance business was primarily built on AIG acquiring American General Corporation (AGC) in 2001 for $23 billion. AGC was founded in 1926 by Gus Wortham, who was one of the Houston’s major civic leaders.

Management

Kevin Hogan, the CEO of Corebridge, has been in that position since 2014. According to LinkedIn, he is based in New York as is Elias Habayeb, the CFO. He has been in that role for almost a year. Both Mr. Hogan and Mr. Habayeb are long-time AIG employees, though, interestingly both left and then rejoined AIG.

The carve-out from AIG is expected to cost between $350 million and $450 million as the company rebrands and replaces systems and infrastructure provided by AIG.

Corebridge will list on the NYSE with the ticker ‘CRBG’

https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220914006004/en/AIG-Announces-Pricing-of-Corebridge-Financial-Inc.-Initial-Public-Offering

 

Houston bank first to settle allegations of false PPP lending

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Prosperity Bank, based in Houston, has become the first US bank to settle claims arising out of the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). It has agreed to pay $18,674 arising from a $213,400 PPP loan made to Woodlands Pain Institute.



The PPP application included a question asking whether the applicant is subject to an indictment or is facing criminal charges. At the time of his application, Dr. Emad Bishai was the sole owner of Woodlands Pain Institute. He checked the box marked ‘No’ even though he was facing criminal charges in Montgomery County.

Prosperity Bank employees knew Bishai was facing charges and was therefore ineligible to apply for the PPP loan. They processed his application anyway. Prosperity Bank received a 5% processing fee of $10,670.

Bishai entered into a $0.5 million settlement in November 2021 to resolve his liability arising from fraudulent medical billing and his submission of the PPP loan application. He also repaid the PPP loan in full in 2022.

https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdtx/pr/first-ever-false-claims-act-settlement-received-paycheck-protection-program-lender

Six Houston-area residents charged with mortgage fraud

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Six Houston-area residents have been charged in a multi-layered fraud scheme involving mortgage fraud and identity theft.



The US Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of Texas issued a press release, outlining some of the details. However, the original indictment filed last month remains sealed. Therefore, at this time, I don’t know how the scheme started and how long it continued.

The scheme involves

  • Elvina Buckley, a Woodlands realtor
  • Heather Ann Campos, a mortgage broker, based in Spring
  • Melinda Munoz, a notary, based in Spring
  • Leslie Edrington and her daughter, ShyAnne, also based in Spring
  • David Lewis Best Jr, a financial services executive

Ms. Campos and Mr. Best are considered fugitives and warrants remain outstanding for their arrest.

The indictment alleges that the six recruited clients for credit repair and “cleaned” their clients’ credit histories by filing false identify theft reports with the Federal Trade Commission.

After falsely inflating client credit worthiness, the six would fraudulently obtain credit cards, disaster loans and mortgages for themselves and their clients. They maintained control of the properties purchased in their clients’ names for the purpose of, allegedly, building a real estate portfolio worth millions of dollars and enriching themselves with rental income.

If convicted, all face up to 30 years in federal prison and a possible $1 million maximum fine.

https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdtx/pr/area-residents-charged-multi-layered-fraud-scheme