Hardy rejects new offer from Beazley

15th Nov 2010 07:32

Underwriter Beazley has again been rejected by rival Hardy despite upping its indicative takeover offer by 10% to 330p.Beazley said the board of Hardy would not recommend an offer of 330p per share and would not even be prepared to meet to discuss it. A previous offer of 300p per share got similar short-shrift."Beazley remains disappointed by the board of Hardy's continued refusal to enter into a dialogue," its statement said, adding it will withdraw its proposal unless the Hardy directors adopt a "more constructive" approach.It called on Hardy shareholders to put pressure on the the board. "The revised proposal would also have been at a level higher than that at which Hardy shares have ever traded and would have been equal to the highest analyst target price for Hardy published prior to the submission of the initial proposal," Beazley said.In response, Hardy says the offer "substantially undervalues the company" and that Beazley is being opportunistic, "taking advantage of both the current market environment and recent, short-term circumstances specific to Hardy." Separately, Beazley reported premiums up 2% to $1.35bn in the nine months to September, though renewal premiums fell by 2%. "In spite of high profile losses in the market, the combined ratio of Beazley remains in line with previous periods," it added. The investment portfolio returned 0.8%. "Profit-focused underwriting underpinned a continuing strong performance at Beazley in the third quarter. We remain on track to achieve an excellent result in 2010 despite increasing competition for business and catastrophes in Chile and New Zealand," Andrew Horton, chief executive, said.