Beazley rejects £7.7bn takeover offer from Zurich Financial

(Sharecast News) - Beazley said on Thursday that it has rejected a £7.7bn takeover offer from Zurich Financial as it "materially undervalues" the company and its longer-term prospects. Zurich disclosed on Monday that it had made a 1,280p a share cash offer for Beazley. This represented a 56% premium to the closing share price on Friday.

This followed an earlier approach made by Zurich on 4 January at 1,230p a share, which was rejected on 16 January.

Beazley said on Thursday that it received three proposals from Zurich in June last year and engaged with the company "appropriately", including providing it with certain limited due diligence information "in a good faith effort to come to a shared understanding of value".

It pointed out that the terms of Zurich's latest proposal are below the proposal made in late June last year and rejected by Beazley. It valued the group at 1,315p per share at an implied equity value of £8.4bn.

"The board is very confident in Beazley's standalone prospects as a publicly listed company and in the attractiveness of Beazley's business model fundamentals and believes that Beazley is uniquely positioned within the global insurance market to maximise long-term shareholder value and realise the full potential of its specialty platform," it said.

RBC Capital Markets said the key question now is whether Zurich follows up with a higher bid.

It said the bid has focused the spotlight on Beazley's strong strategic positioning, track record and distinctiveness of operations. This could attract other suitors, RBC said.