15 May 2015 Insurance

PartnerRe board says it will act in shareholders’ best interests

PartnerRe's board has confirmed that it has received a revised offer from Exor to buy the company, which it will review in order to make a recommendation that is in the best interest of the company and its shareholders.

The board said in a statement that it would carry out this role consistent with its fiduciary duties and subject to its existing merger agreement with AXIS Capital. It declined to comment further until it has completed a review.

Exor’s new bid comes after PartnerRe’s board rejected Exor’s first offer and reaffirmed its intention to complete a deal with Axis Capital, the terms of which were enhanced following the Exor bid to include a one-time special dividend to PartnerRe shareholders.

Exor has now raised its all-cash offer for PartnerRe to $137.5 per share, which Exor said values PartnerRe at $6.8 billion and represents a 10 percent premium to the implied value under the Axis agreement. It had previously offered $130 per PartnerRe share. Exor is also now PartnerRe's largest shareholder with a 9.32 percent stake.

Exor was also highly critical of the PartnerRe board in the way it has handled the rival bids so far. Specifically, it has claimed that the board has ignored the superior value of the Exor bid and is not acting in the best interests of the company.

Already registered?

Login to your account

To request a FREE 2-week trial subscription, please signup.
NOTE - this can take up to 48hrs to be approved.

Two Weeks Free Trial

For multi-user price options, or to check if your company has an existing subscription that we can add you to for FREE, please email Elliot Field at efield@newtonmedia.co.uk or Adrian Tapping at atapping@newtonmedia.co.uk