Aug 23 (Reuters) - Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd FFH.TO :
* Fairfax and Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance enter into strategic alliance and sale of First Capital
* Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd says cash purchase price for Fairfax's interest in First Capital is us$1.6 billion
* Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd says closing of first capital transaction is expected late in 2017 or early 2018
* Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd says Mitsui Sumitomo will acquire Fairfax's 97.7% interest in First Capital Insurance Limited Of Singapore
* Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd - deal will result in a realized net investment gain of approximately us$900 million after tax
* Fairfax Financial Holdings-Ramaswamy Athappan will continue as first capital's ceo, while continuing to retain his responsibilities as chairman of fairfax asia
* BofA Merrill lynch acted as exclusive financial advisor to fairfax.