Dogs Loved Like Children Fuel Pet Insurance Sales

[nwoodman]

Short article on the pet insurance industry.  Nice place for an insurer with a  market cap of $10b to play in and hopefully way too small for that "other" company with a slightly larger market cap of $350b

 

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-11-13/dogs-loved-like-children-fuel-pet-insurance-sales.html

 

"Makara is among so-called pet parents fueling a $600 million industry in North America that’s growing at triple the pace of U.S. accident-and-health coverage, drawing investment from companies including Toronto-based Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. (FFH) and Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co.

 

Fairfax, run by value investor Prem Watsa, agreed this year to buy Pethealth Inc., North America’s second-largest pet insurer, for C$100 million ($88 million). The Oakville, Ontario-based firm provides pet pharmaceuticals, microchips for animal identification, and insurance that covers everything from behavioral therapy to a reward for the return of a runaway pet.

 

“It’s a nascent industry and demographically it has legs, especially with the adoption of pets as family members,” Fairfax President Paul Rivett said in a telephone interview."