Markel pushed by Jana to explore separation or sale of private investments unit

Jana Partners has amassed a stake in insurer Markel (MKL) Group and is pushing the specialty insurance company to explore a separation or sale of its private investments business, Scott Ostfeld, managing partner at the activist investment firm is quoted as having said at Bloomberg’s investment conference, according to the news service. Markel is “significantly undervalued” and would benefit from improvement in execution of its core insurance business, Ostfeld is quoted as having said. Jana believes that the entire company is an “attractive” takeover target for larger insurers, though the size of Jana’s stake in Markel wasn’t disclosed, Bloomberg noted.