Zurich Insurance Group has submitted an improved proposal to acquire Beazley plc, proposing 1,280 pence in cash per Beazley share - representing a roughly 56% premium to Beazley’s closing share price on January 16, 2026 - the company said in a statement.

Zurich told Beazley’s board it wants to proceed at pace and believes the proposal “provides full value for Beazley across all relevant metrics.”

Zurich previously proposed 1,230 pence per share on January 4, 2026, an approach that Beazley’s board rejected on January 16 as significantly undervaluing the company. The revised 1,280p proposal equates to a 56% premium to Beazley’s 30-day volume-weighted average share price to January 16, a 27% premium to the median analyst price target of 1,010p, and a 32% premium to Beazley’s all-time high of 973p on June 6, 2025. Zurich said any eventual offer price could be reduced by the amount of dividends declared or paid after the announcement.

Zurich framed the potential transaction as the creation of “a global leader in specialty insurance” with approximately US$15 billion of gross written premiums, combining Zurich’s commercial lines scale and recently established global specialty unit with Beazley’s Lloyd’s of London platform and transactional specialty expertise. Zurich noted that its global property and casualty business generated around US$47 billion of gross written premiums in 2024 - and that its specialty platform already has scale of about US$9 billion.

The group said the combination would leverage underwriting, data, distribution, reinsurance and technology capabilities and would be funded through existing cash, new debt facilities and an equity placing. Zurich added that it expects the transaction to be accretive to its 2027 financial targets.

The statement emphasised Zurich’s desire to secure prompt engagement with Beazley’s board, arguing that the proposal “provides Beazley shareholders immediate and certain cash value”, which Zurich said it believes exceeds what Beazley could achieve by pursuing its standalone strategy over a reasonable timeframe.

Regulatory and procedural notes

Zurich cautioned that there can be no certainty an offer will be made and set out the timetable under the UK Takeover Code. By 5.00pm (London time) on February 16, 2026, Zurich must either announce a firm intention to make an offer under Rule 2.7 of the Code or confirm that it does not intend to do so, with any extension to that deadline requiring the consent of the Takeover Panel.

The announcement also reserves Zurich’s right to vary the mix or composition of consideration, to reduce the proposal in certain circumstances, and to announce different terms should the Beazley board recommend the approach or a third-party bid emerge.

For the market, the proposed combination highlights the strategic importance of specialty underwriting scale and Lloyd’s distribution at a time when data, reinsurance relationships and global reach are increasingly shaping competitive advantage. Brokers, reinsurers and corporate clients will be watching closely to see whether Zurich can secure board engagement and regulatory clearances, and how the proposed funding structure and integration strategy could influence capacity and product development across global specialty lines.