(Bloomberg) -- PartnerRe Ltd., seeking to fend off a hostile$6.8 billion cash bid from Exor SpA, is weighing whether it canarrange new terms with rival reinsurer Axis Capital Holdings Ltd.to preserve their planned merger.

The two Bermuda-based insurers postponed shareholder votes thatwere scheduled for July 24 and will instead hold meetings on Aug.7, PartnerRe and Axis said Friday in a statement.

Exor, the billionaire Agnelli family’s investment firm, met withinvestors Tuesday to persuade them to vote against the Axis mergerplan. Exor Chairman John Elkann offered to lift the dividend onPartnerRe preferred shares by one percentage point if his bid issuccessful, and said he won’t call three series of the securitiesuntil 2021.

“PartnerRe and Axis Capital are committed to ensuring thatcommon and preferred shareholders benefit materially from thecombination,” the reinsurers said in the statement. They said newterms will be released in the “near term.”

Amit Kumar, an analyst at Macquarie Group Ltd., and BMO CapitalMarkets’ Charles Sebaski have said Exor’s sweetened terms may havebeen winning over PartnerRe shareholders.

“It is no secret that investors and other sell-siders continueto switch and put a lower probability on Axis-PartnerRe deal makingit past the finish line,” Kumar wrote in a note to clients onThursday.

PartnerRe and Axis seek to create the world’s fifth-largestproperty-and-casualty reinsurer through a merger that woulddiversify risks. The added scale could help the company withstandcompetition from new rivals, including Wall Street investors whoare pursuing weather-related bets that are uncorrelated withfinancial markets.

'Flawed process'

PartnerRe’s effort to revisit the deal terms should beconsidered a sign that Exor’s offer is superior, Elkann’s companysaid in a separate statement.

“By postponing its own shareholder meeting, PartnerRe continuesits attempts to rescue an inferior transaction that is the resultof a flawed process,” Exor said.

PartnerRe gained 0.5 percent to $131.84 at 12:56 p.m. in NewYork, compared with Turin-based Exor’s offer of $137.50 a share.Axis climbed 1 percent, and Exor rose 2.3 percent in Italy.

--With assistance from Selina Wang and Katherine Chiglinsky inNew York and Dan Liefgreen in Milan.

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