Quinn Healthcare, the State's second largest private health insurer, has changed hands for the second time in just four years after senior management successfully completed a buy-out backed by international re-insurance giant Swiss Re.

Confirming the takeover this morning, the new management team assured customers that they would be unaffected by the changes and said "a natural transition" to a new brand would take place over the coming months.

The company, which has a 20 per cent share of the market and over 400,000 subscribers, is currently in administration following its takeover by Anglo Irish Bank from the Quinn group.

The new owners did not say how much the deal was worth but when Quinn Healthcare bought it from Bupa in 2007 it was valued at around €130 million. The price paid on this occasion is thought to have been substantially less than that figure.

The new management team said the transition would be “seamless” and stressed that there would be no changes to the terms and conditions of policy holder’s cover.

Managing director Dónal Clancy said it would ensure that competition remained in the market and secure more than 300 jobs in Fermoy, Co Cork. He said the experience of the management team and the financial clout of underwriter Elips Life, part of the highly capitalised global reinsurer Swiss Re, meant the company would be "well positioned to drive even further competition in the market and bring increased innovation and value".

Bruce Hodkinson, a spokesman for Swiss Re, described Quinn Healthcare "as an excellent fit with our business" and he said the with its backing the company would be able to "provide long-term security to the policyholders and employees of the company."

The news brings the curtain down on proposals that the State purchase the company as part of an ambitious plan to merge it with the VHI and reform the health insurance market.

Minister for Health James Reilly had suggested the State purchase Quinn Healthcare in a memo sent to Cabinet colleagues earlier this month.