Insurer Fidelity National Enters the Restaurant Business

Facing limited growth opportunities in his main business—title insurance—Fidelity National Financial Chairman William Foley II has a plan to boost his company’s revenue: sell “chicken bacon bleu” sandwiches and tenderloin beef carpaccio. On Feb. 6 the insurer agreed to buy O’Charley’s, a casual-dining chain with more than 340 locations, for about $200 million by purchasing the shares of the company it didn’t already own.

The notion of an insurer shifting into the restaurant business is not as incongruous as it seems. First, some background. Foley, a lawyer by training, bought a small title insurer in the 1980s and began buying up others, building Fidelity National into the largest U.S. company in the field, with $3.26 billion in title premium revenue last year. (Title insurers verify that a seller is a property’s true owner and that the property is free from liens. The companies collect a one-time premium and pay costs that arise if someone disputes the new owner’s right to the property.)