Portland-based MEMIC agrees to acquire South Dakota firm

Photo / Renee Cordes MEMIC Group, a Portland-based workers' compensation company, has agreed to acquire Dakota Group, based in Sioux Falls, S.D.

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By Renee Cordes

MEMIC Group, a workers’ compensation provider based in Portland, has agreed to acquire a South Dakota-based company in a move that will expand the buyer’s geographic reach with a strong foothold in the Midwest.

The acquisition of the Dakota Group, including Risk Administration Services Inc. and its four insurance service affiliates, will make MEMIC the country’s third-largest multi-state workers’ compensation specialist with more than $600 million in estimated combined writings in 2025 and coverage for more than 25,000 employers nationwide.

Terms of the deal — MEMIC’s first strategic purchase since it was founded more three decades ago — were not disclosed in Thursday's announcement.

File Photo / Kevin Brusie Photography

Michael Bourque

“I would say this is our first real acquisition,” Michael Bourque, the company’s president and CEO, told Mainebiz. “We bought a dormant insurer in 2011 which we now call MEMIC Casualty Co. It was just the shell of a company at the time, but we have grown it to more than $50 million in revenue over the last decade or so.”

When the Maine Employers' Mutual Insurance Co. was founded in 1993, it was one of only four companies licensed to sell workers' compensation insurance in Maine, with the other three poised to exit the state altogether, according to a MEMIC’s website.

Today, the Portland-based firm is licensed to write workers’ comp coverage across 50 states and finished 2024 with $435 million in direct written premiums. MEMIC said it partners with more than 21,000 employers and supports a million of their employees with safety services and injury management.

The Dakota acquisition will add around 200 employees to MEMIC, bringing the staff total to more than 700.

Midwestern presence

With a significant presence in the upper Midwest, the Sioux Falls-based Dakota Group has a strong and growing market share in workers’ compensation that aligns with MEMIC’s growth along the Eastern seaboard from Maine to Florida, according to Thursday’s news release.

Map / Courtesy of MEMIC

MEMIC's planned acquisition of the Dakota Group, including Risk Administration Services Inc. and four affiliates, will expand MEMIC's geographic reach (shown in blue) to several midwestern states (in red).

Dakota is the leading voluntary workers’ compensation writer in South Dakota and a Top 15 policy writer in Minnesota, Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska. Dakota's Risk Administration Services serves as attorney-in-fact for reciprocal insurer Dakota Truck Underwriters.

The transaction is subject to regulatory approval both in Maine and South Dakota as well as New Hampshire, where some MEMIC subsidiaries are based, according to Bourque. The aim is to close the deal by January, with Dakota’s management staying on after the combination.

On the radar

Long before the companies started talking about joining forces, Dakota was on MEMIC’s radar.

“We were aware of the Dakota Group as a top regional performer in the industry. I had previously met their president and CEO many years ago at an industry event,” Bourque explained. “We heard they were going to the market last winter and we were immediately interested.”

He also noted that the companies meshed well in terms of cultures.

“Like MEMIC, they are in the business to help employers better manage their workers’ compensation risk through safer workplaces and strong return-to-work programs,” he said.

After the combination, MEMIC plans to keep Dakota’s management in place, according to Bourque.

Bourque said that MEMIC has no further acquisitions planned at this time as it seeks to brings the Dakota Group into the fold.

"That will be our focus, aside from our first priority to keep MEMIC running well," he said.

Richard Johnson, president and CEO of the Dakota Group, said that by joining forces, the companies “have an incredible opportunity to combine our strengths, innovate and deliver even greater value to the customers and partners who rely on us every day.”

Advisers

MEMIC's advisers on the transactions are Aon Securities LLC and Pierce Atwood LLP, a Portland-based law firm.

The Dakota Group is taking financial advice from Keefe, Bruyette & Woods and Troutman Pepper Locke LLP.

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