Published: January 19, 2026 at 2:04 pm
Zurich Insurance has made an offer of around £7.7 billion to acquire FTSE 100 company and fellow insurance giant Beazley plc.
The offer of 1,280p in cash per share, which comes after a previous offer was snubbed, represents a 56% premium to Beazley’s 820p closing price on 16th January and a similar uplift to its 30-day volume-weighted average share price.
This share price has now been dwarfed, as the London-based company’s stock has risen by a remarkable 42% to 1,173p in the last hour – around 200p higher than it has ever been in its 22 years as a public company.
The Swiss insurer’s latest approach marks an increase on its earlier 1,230p proposal submitted on 4th January, which Beazley rejected on 16th January as it “significantly undervalued” the business.