DnB Drops Bid for Storebrand

Norway’s Den Norske Bank (DnB) announced that it is dropping its bid to take over Storebrand, the country’s largest insurer.

DnB had originally offered 1.33 shares of its stock in exchange for one Storebrand share, valuing the deal at around $2.2 billion, but the bank wanted to renegotiate the purchase terms in view of recent stock market declines and losses, which it felt had reduced Storebrand’s overall value.

DnB, which controls slightly less than 10 percent of Storebrand’s shares, effectively blocked an earlier merger attempt from Finnnish insurer Sampo last year, which was valued at the time at around $2.8 billion.