Zurich has made another offer for specialty insurer Beazley, raising its bid to about £7.6 billion ($15.2 billion).

The £12.80 ($25.56) per share cash offer made yesterday follows proposals including one on January 4 for £12.30 ($24.56), which was rejected last Friday when Beazley directors viewed it as “significantly undervaluing” the London-listed insurer, according to Zurich.

The latest offer represents a premium of 56% to Beazley’s closing share price of £8.20 ($16.37) last Friday – the last business day before the proposal – and 32% of Beazley’s record high share price of £9.73 ($19.43) on June 6 last year.

“Zurich has reiterated to Beazley that, given its desire to proceed at pace, Zurich’s offer price provides full value for Beazley across all relevant metrics, and is designed to facilitate prompt engagement,” the Swiss insurer said.

“Zurich has submitted this significantly increased proposal with a view to securing engagement from the board of Beazley so that both companies can deliver a transaction.”

The proposed acquisition would create a global leader in specialty insurance, with about $US15 billion ($22 billion) gross written premium, “exceptional data availability and underwriting expertise, [and] leading market and distribution capabilities”, Zurich says.

“Moreover, Zurich has recently reinforced its strategic direction through the creation of a global specialty unit, allowing for greater focus on a specialty business which already has significant scale.” 

Zurich’s specialty business recorded about $US9 billion ($13.3 billion) of premium in 2024.

CEO Mario Greco told investors last November: “Today we’re at number three globally on specialties … I want to quickly start growing ourselves even faster … we like specialty because it’s a very sustainable business where you cannot simply enter. It’s a size game. How many have more than 100 underwriters in cyber? Because this is a market about the skills, and so the bigger you are, the better.”

Mr Greco told the Financial Times yesterday that Zurich made its first offer about a year ago and its latest bid is its fifth attempt.

Beazley says it “has not yet had the chance to consider” Zurich’s latest offer. “We will update shareholders in due course. In the meantime, Beazley shareholders are urged to take no action.”

Beazley reduced its Australian presence with the sale of its accident and health portfolio in 2017. In 2022 it extended its Safeguard sexual abuse cover to the Australian market.

Investment bank Jefferies’ equities team says in a research note that the latest offer “feels generous … But on the other hand, one might argue that Beazley is a stronger franchise than those acquired previously, with a differentiated cyber franchise and market-leading [return on equity] track record – thereby deserving of a better offer.”

Advisory firm MKI Global Partners’ CEO Mark Kelly said: “Zurich is clearly trying to ‘bear hug’ Beazley. They obviously think they are offering a price that is high enough for target shareholders to put pressure on the company to sell itself.”