EXOR Files Suit to Get PartnerRe’s Shareholder List; Takeover Battle Heats Up

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EXOR, the Turin, Italy-based investment company and a suitor in the ongoing takeover battle of PartnerRe, filed a lawsuit on June 1 in the Supreme Court of Bermuda, seeking to obtain PartnerRe’s list of shareholders in order to make sure “they are fully and correctly informed of their options.”

EXOR said it filed the lawsuit because “PartnerRe has thus far refused to share the shareholder lists, further evidencing the intention of PartnerRe’s board to protect an inferior transaction with AXIS to the detriment of its shareholders, employees and clients.”

In a press release issued on June 3, EXOR said it wants “to communicate directly with PartnerRe shareholders with regards to EXOR’s superior all-cash $137.50 per share binding offer [worth $6.8 billion] for PartnerRe and to solicit them to vote against the AXIS transaction.”

PartnerRe asserted in a statement issued on June 3 that “EXOR’s claims are without merit.”

In January, the Bermuda-based AXIS Capital Holdings Ltd. and PartnerRe Ltd. announced they would merge to create a company with a market value of almost $11 billion. Under the proposed AXIS-Partner Re agreement, PartnerRe shareholders would be entitled to about 51.5 percent of a combined company and common shareholders will receive a special dividend of $11.50 a share.

EXOR offered its first competing bid for PartnerRe in April.

AXIS and PartnerRe shareholders will have the opportunity to vote on the proposed merger on July 24.

As a result of the scheduled shareholder vote, EXOR said it has extended the date on which its binding offer is valid to July 26 to ensure “that EXOR’s offer is available to PartnerRe if the reinsurer’s shareholders vote down the proposed AXIS transaction.”

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