(Bloomberg) -- Axis Capital Holdings Ltd. Chief Executive Officer Albert Benchimol, who’s working to complete a merger with PartnerRe Ltd., said his company can withstand a collapse of the deal and that a termination fee would soften the blow.
“We intend to work on making it happen,” Benchimol said in a letter to employees, issued Wednesday in a filing. “But if it doesn’t, we are still the same strong company we were before we announced the merger, and if PartnerRe sells to another party we expect to receive a $280 million breakup fee that would increase our book value by approximately 5%.”
PartnerRe said Wednesday that it would negotiate with Italy’s Exor SpA, a hostile bidder seeking to upset the merger. Axis and PartnerRe agreed in January to form the world’s fifth-largest property-and-casualty reinsurer in a deal that has since been sweetened to value PartnerRe at $126 a share, based on Bermuda-based Axis’s closing price of $52.33 on May 1.
Exor’s $6.8 billion proposal, or $137.50 a share, was rejected by PartnerRe as “unacceptable.” Jean-Paul Montupet, chairman of Bermuda-based PartnerRe, said in a statement that his company is worth materially more. PartnerRe has a waiver from Axis allowing for direct engagement with Exor, according to the statement.
Under the Axis agreement, PartnerRe shareholders would be entitled to about 51.5% of a combined company. The revised Axis deal, made after Exor began bidding, also provided for a special dividend of $11.50 a share to PartnerRe investors.
“Whatever happens, Axis has a bright future,” Benchimol wrote. “We are a great company on our own, and were successfully pursuing our own standalone strategy when PartnerRe approached us with the proposed merger.”
--With assistance from Tommaso Ebhardt in Milan.
Copyright 2018 Bloomberg. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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