Beazley has rejected Zurich’s takeover bid which had valued the UK specialty insurer at £7.7bn.

The Beazley board unanimously rejected the latest cash proposal of £12.80 per share from the Swiss group announced last week, after it emerged that the UK group had already turned down several earlier approaches.

Beazley said that the latest offer “materially undervalues” both the company and its longer-term prospects.

Zurich’s terms for its latest bid were below an offer it made for Beazley in June last year, which at £13.15 per share had valued the company at £8.8bn. This was equivalent to approximately 2.4x tangible book value as of 31 December 2024.

Beazley has advised its shareholders to take no action in relation to the offer but did suggest that it was “open-minded about all options to deliver value”.

A Beazley statement said: “The board is very confident in Beazley’s standalone prospects as a publicly listed company and in the attractiveness of Beazley’s business model fundamentals and believes that Beazley is uniquely positioned within the global insurance market to maximise long-term shareholder value and realise the full potential of its specialty platform.”

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