The financial services division of Northern Ireland electricity group, Viridian, has acquired a Co Derry insurance brokerage with net assets of £250,000 sterling. The consideration was not disclosed.

Viridian's subsidiary, Open + Direct, said the Coleraine-based business SG Cathcart & Co specialised in car, motorcycle, home and travel insurance.

The deal meant the Open + Direct was now the North's third-largest insurer after Hughes & Co and Abbey, claimed its managing director, Mr Paul Elliott.

Viridian is the largest publicly-owned company in the North with a turnover in the last financial year of £566 million sterling.

Its financial subsidiary acquired another local insurer, Spratt's, in January and now claims some 40,000 insurance clients. Slightly more than half the customers were acquired as part of the Spratt's deal, Mr Elliot said. He declined to reveal the consideration paid by Open + Direct for Spratt's.

In a statement the company said its strategy was to grow organically and through the acquisition of market leaders in the personal insurance sector, although Mr Elliot declined to comment when asked whether it had initiated dialogue with other companies in the sector.

Open + Direct's receiveables were valued at more than £35 million sterling at the end of March, Mr Elliot said.

The company claims to be the largest provider of "real-time" credit at retail outlets in the North. It offers the same service at four Electricworld outlets in Dublin and Galway.

Open + Direct also operates a fleet hire business and a property company. Its personal finance division offers loans, mortgages and a credit card service.