New name in the works for Echelon’s former corporate owner

EFH Holdings Inc., the Mississauga, Ont.-based corporate owner of Insurance Company of Prince Edward Island (ICPEI), is applying to change its name ICPEI Holdings Inc.

EFH was known until December 2020 as Echelon Financial, which owned Canadian P&C insurer Echelon Insurance until 2019.

Echelon Insurance is now owned by CAA Club Group, which also owns CAA Insurance.

EFH shareholders approved the plan to re-name the firm to ICPEI Holdings at a July 15 meeting, the EFH announced. The name change is subject to regulatory approval.

Until 2005, half of Echelon Financial was owned by The Co-operators Group Ltd. and its affiliates. As of May 31, 2021, no single person held more than 10% of the voting rights of EFH stock, the company said July 6.

In 2018, Echelon Financial completed the $22-million sale of its European operations, which wrote non-standard auto through Qudos Insurance.

EFH reported May 20 it had net premiums written of nearly $11 million in the three months ending Mar. 31, 2021. EFH’s current CEO is Serge Lavoie, who had been CEO of Jevco from 2006 through 2012. In 2010, Kingsway Financial Services Inc. sold Jevco to The Westaim Corp., which sold Jevco in 2012 to Intact Financial Corp.

Echelon used to own American Colonial Insurance Company, through which it wrote non-standard auto in Florida. Echelon sold American Colonial in 2013.

Changing the name of EFH to ICPEI was “advisable” because EFH was only allowed to use the name Echelon until Dec. 31, 2020, the company said in a securities filing posted July 6, 2021.

EFH Holdings acquired 75% of ICPEI from Saskatchewan Government Insurance (SGI) in 2014. Then, on Apr. 1, 2021, EFH closed a $6.3-million deal to buy the remaining 25%, of ICPEI, from Cooke Holdings Inc.

Feature image via iStock.com/Atstock Productions