Published: January 22, 2026 at 11:54 am
The board of Beazley plc has ‘unanimously rejected’ the £7.7 billion takeover bid from fellow insurance giant Zurich.
The FTSE 100 firm said the offer of 1,280p in cash per share ‘materially undervalues Beazley and its longer-term prospects as an independent company’.
The offer represents a 56% premium to Beazley’s 820p closing price on 16th January 2026. However Beazley’s share price has risen around 40% since then and currently stands at 1,138p, giving it a market cap of £6.8bn.
The board said it had received three proposals from Zurich in June last year and provided it with certain limited due diligence information in ‘good faith’.
The last of those – also rejected – was for 1,315p per share at an implied equity value of £8.4bn.