(Bloomberg) – Investors gave a resounding thumbs-down to the partial spinoff of Axa SA's U.S. business, dealing a blow to boss Thomas Buberl's strategy for the French insurer.
The sale of part of its U.S. operations raised almost $1 billion less than the company had hoped for, amid concern among shareholders at the $15.3 billion takeover of XL Group Ltd. which the IPO will help finance.
“Shareholder frustration with Axa's CEO is likely only to have increased after the sale,” Bloomberg Intelligence analysts Charles Graham and Jonathan Adams said in a note. The XL acquisition offers “limited synergy benefits, and in our view, increases underwriting risk.”
XL takover was aimed to help Axa shift toward P&C insurance
The buyout is supposed to help Axa shift toward property and casualty insurance just as premiums rise after last year's hurricanes and California wildfires, and also to reduce its exposure to savings activities in the U.S.
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