Insurance Regulators Open Hearings: A plan to...

Insurance Regulators Open Hearings: A plan to sell Farmers Group Inc., the nation’s third-largest auto insurer, as part of a hostile takeover bid for parent BAT Industries, is questionable and should be rejected, attorneys for Farmers told state insurance regulators in Illinois. But Sir James Goldsmith, the Anglo-French financier whose Hoylake Investment Ltd. is mounting the bid, dismissed the argument as a desperate tactic in BAT management’s “no-holds-barred takeover defense.” The Illinois Department of Insurance hearings are to determine the suitability of Hoylake to become Farmers’ parent through the proposed acquisition of BAT.