Zurich Makes £7.7 Billion Bid for Specialty Insurer Beazley
Zurich Insurance Group AG has gone public with a £7.67 billion ($10.3 billion) bid to buy Beazley Plc, increasing pressure on the UK-listed company it’s been wooing for more than 12 months.
The Swiss insurer offered to buy London-based Beazley at 1,280 pence a share in cash, according to a statement Monday, a 56% premium to the company’s closing price Friday. A deal would create a “global leader” in specialty insurance with about $15 billion of gross written premiums, Zurich said.
The proposal is the fifth made by Zurich over more than a year, according to Chief Executive Officer Mario Greco. While his firm has undertaken a series of deals in recent years, the Beazley approach is the company’s biggest bid since he took over in 2016 and its first major strategic move in a decade.
“I made an offer, it’s distant from being accepted, and now the shareholders have to speak about it,” Greco said in a phone interview. “Beazley is a very complementary business to ours, there is nothing we don’t need or don’t like. The fit is very strong.”
Beazley’s board “has not yet had the chance” to consider Zurich’s latest bid and will update shareholders “in due course,” it said in a separate statement Monday. A top 20 Beazley shareholder, who asked not to be named, told Bloomberg News they believe Zurich’s improved proposal still undervalues the company and that Beazley’s peak-cycle earnings would demand a higher bid.
Shares in Beazley soared as much as 46% to their highest since the company’s debut in 2002 after the announcement, the biggest jump on record. Zurich slipped as much as 1.9%.
The Swiss insurer said the proposed transaction would be in line with the strategic priorities indicated at its Nov. 18 investor day. The acquisition would be funded through existing cash, new debt facilities and an equity placing, according to the statement.
Beazley, whose specialist insurance businesses has operations in Europe, North America, Latin America and Asia, reported net insurance written premiums of $5.2 billion in 2024 and $2.6 billion in the first six months of 2025.
Risks grouped under the property and specialty banners made up around a third each of its premium income in the first half of 2025. Cyber and digital insurance represented about a fifth with areas like marine, aviation and political risks making up the balance.
Achilles Heel
The company’s share price more than doubled in the five years from 2021 to the end of 2025, as increasing cyber attacks lifted demand for insurance. But the company fell as much as 13% following third quarter earnings in November as sales came in below analysts’ expectations.
Such swings reflects its concentration on more volatile lines of business like cyber and other specialty areas, a focus that “is likely to be its Achilles heel” as a standalone company, Bloomberg Intelligence said in December.
Read more: Beazley’s Pricing Leverage Weakens as Zurich Circles
A deal would be accretive to Zurich’s 2027 financial targets, the company said. Zurich now has until Feb. 16 to announce its intention to make a firm offer for Beazley, under UK takeover rules.
The size of the premium reflects Zurich’s desire to proceed at pace, according to the statement.
In November, Chief Financial Officer Claudia Cordioli said Zurich was “very focused on organic growth, as we always said, but we’re always looking at opportunities,” commenting on a call with analysts after the insurer reported third quarter earnings. “They just need to be attractive and accretive.”
Last year Zurich bought the Canadian cyber risk management firm BOXX Insurance Inc.
Other recent acquisitions include a minority stake in Icen Risk, a UK company specializing in insuring mergers and acquisitions, American International Group’s global travel insurance business, as well as a majority stake in India’s Kotak General Insurance Company Ltd.
Read More: Zurich Insurance Says Its on Track to Exceed Targets This Year
Investment bankers at UBS Group AG, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Lazard Inc. are advising Zurich on its Beazley approach. Beazley’s advisers are JPMorgan Cazenove and Barclays Plc.