Apollo raises bid for Brit Insurance
Brit Insurance has said Apollo Management had raised its takeover bid to £10.75p a share, valuing it at about £850m ($1.32bn), and that it has opened its books to the US buyout firm.
The Lloyd’s of London insurer had rebuffed an improved takeover proposal of £10.50p per share earlier this month, up from Apollo’s original bid of £10, but signalled it would be ready to do a deal at the right price.
London-listed Brit said that the latest approach includes a 30 pence dividend, also announced on Wednesday, and that the due diligence period is expected to take a number of weeks.
The group reported a pretax profit of £72.8m ($113m) for the six months to end June, compared with 64.9 million pounds in the same period last year.
Analysts polled by the company had put pretax profit at £47.9m with expectations ranging between £15m and £65m.