Aspen Insurance Rejects Revised Proposal From Endurance

(RTTNews) - Aspen Insurance Holdings Ltd. (AHL) said Monday that its directors have unanimously rejected a revised unsolicited proposal from Endurance Specialty Holdings Ltd. (ENH) to acquire Aspen for a combination of Endurance common stock and cash.

The directors rejected a proposal made privately by Endurance in May on substantially the same terms as are contained in the proposal publicly announced Monday.

Glyn Jones, Chairman of the Aspen Board of Directors, said, "Endurance's revised proposal represents a backwards step in their efforts to pursue what has always been an ill-conceived transaction. Given Aspen's strong 4.4% book value growth in the first quarter, Endurance's new proposal represents an even lower multiple of book value per share than its initial proposal, and the stock portion of the proposal lags even further behind given the decline in Endurance's stock price since its initial proposal. Despite Endurance touting its headline price of $49.50 per share, based on the proposed exchange ratio, the 60% of the consideration that would consist of stock had a value of $47.57 per share on May 30."