Zurich Insurance Group AG is nearing an agreement to acquire UK specialty insurer Beazle
y Plc and raise billions of dollars in equity to help fund the deal, according to people familiar with the matter.
The Swiss insurer is likely to announce a firm, recommended bid for Beazley as early as Monday, the people said. Simultaneously, the Swiss company is expecte
d to tap investors for $3 billion to $5 billion by March 4, the latest deadline for it to make a definite offer for Beazley, one of the people said.
The final timing, and size of the equity raise, could still change, the people said.
In January, Zurich said it plans to finance any deal through existing cash and new debt
facilities, with the remainder funded through an equity placing. Zurich’s latest proposal for Beazley values the London-listed company at about £8 billion ($10.8 billion).
Beazley shares rose as much as 2.3% in London. The stock was trading up 2.1% at 1,27
2 pence as of 3:11 p.m. local time, below Zurich’s cash proposal of 1,310 pence a share.
A representative for Zurich declined to comment, while one for Beazley wasn’t immediately available for comment.
Earlier this week, Zurich struck a deal to buy Australia-listed life insurer ClearView for about A$
415 million ($295 million) in cash. Zurich also owns a 5% stake in Spanish lender Banco de Sabadell, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
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In all-risk policies, an excluded cause of damage must be the sole cause of damage for the exclusion to apply, a federal appeals court decided last week in an
opinion that clarifies North Carolina law but could make some claims more costly for insurers.
“The district court’s conclusion comports with North Carolina precedent, which has set out different causation standards for all-risk insurance policies than
what applies to other types of insurance coverage,” the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals wrote in Wake
Chapel Church vs. Church Mutual Insurance.
The precedent is a 1973 decision by the North Carolina Supreme Court, which laid down a genera
l rule that, for all-risk policies, “coverage will extend when damage results from more than one
cause—even though one of the causes is specifically excluded,” the appellate judges explained.