(Bloomberg) — PartnerRe Ltd. said it would engage in discussions with hostile bidder Exor SpA to seek a better offer than the $6.8 billion proposal that the target company called "unacceptable."
"While we believe that PartnerRe is worth materially more than Exor has offered and the terms they have proposed are deficient, we stand ready to negotiate," Jean-Paul Montupet, chairman of Bermuda-based PartnerRe, said in a statement Wednesday.
Montupet's remarks reflect a shift for PartnerRe, which had repeated its commitment for weeks to complete a merger agreement with Axis Capital Holdings Ltd. to form the world's fifth-largest property-and-casualty reinsurer. Italy's Exor, led by the Agnelli family, has made two unsolicited bids as the investment firm seeks to diversify beyond industrial companies such as Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV.
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