By Joshua Kirby

Zurich Insurance and Beazley reached a deal to merge, ending a period of uncertainty over a deal that values Beazley at around $11 billion.

The two companies had already agreed to terms at the start of last month, in a cash deal that would see the Swiss insurer take over the smaller London-listed cyber insurer for 13.35 pounds a share. That would give the company an enterprise value of around 8.2 billion pounds, or $11.06 billion.

But a deadline for Zurich to make a firm offer--or walk away--was later pushed back until this week, when Beazley will set out financial results for last year.

"The transaction is expected to generate significant shareholder value through the combination of two businesses with highly complementary capabilities," Zurich said Monday. The company expects a boost to earnings from the deal from this first year of completion, and a double-digit return on its investment over the medium term. The deal should close in the second half of the year, pending shareholder and regulator approvals.

The company will fund part of the acquisition through a share issue for around 3.9 billion Swiss francs ($5.07 billion.) The new shares will be issued via an accelerated bookbuild to select investors, and should be sewn up this week, Zurich said.

The remainder of the all-cash deal will be funded via existing cash and loan facilities, the company said.

The combined business should have some $15 billion in specialty gross written premiums, Zurich said. It builds on the investments that Zurich has made in developing its market-leading Specialty franchise, which wrote approximately $9 billion of specialty gross written premiums as of Dec. 31, the insurer said.

Write to Joshua Kirby at joshua.kirby@wsj.com; @joshualeokirby

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 02, 2026 12:01 ET (17:01 GMT)

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