Lightyear Capital sold its majority stake in NAU Group, the crop insurer, to QBE of the Americas, a subsidiary of Austrialian QBE Insurance Group LTD for $565 million.

NAU Group was a part of Lightyear’s first fund (the private equity firm is now mostly through deploying it second) and its oldest insurance asset at five years, said PE firm chief executive and chairman Donald Marron.

Lightyear’s managing director David Glenn also worked on the deal; Glenn serves on the board of directors of Lightyear Capital insurance companies Antares Holdings Limited and Delos Insurance Company.

Lightyear and NAU received financial advice from BofA Merrill Lynch and SFRi, and legal advice from Sullivan and Cromwell.

Lately, Lightyear has been making multiple deals—but more often, as a buyer. The company wrapped in early February a deal in which it acquired three broker-dealers—Financial Network Investment Corp., Multi-Financial Securities Corp. and PrimeVest Financial Services—from ING Advisors Network.

Other deals in the insurance space included Greenhill Capital Partners investing $20 million in Acrisure, a Michigan-based insurance agency that has expanded via M&A. Marsh & McLennan Agency, a subsidiary of Marsh Inc., bought Insurance Alliance in late 2009 and last summer PE firm GTCR committed $200 million to Ironshore Inc., a specialty insurer, as lead investor of a group that provided the company with a $300 million package.

Financial services industry