Swiss Re has put off its plans for a £3bn listing of its British life insurance arm Reassure in the wake of weak investor demand. The reinsurance giant blamed “heightened caution and weak underlying demand” from institutional investors for the postponement of its initial public offering (IPO). Trading in the shares, which were set to be valued at a price range of between 280p and 330p, was expected to begin this week. Swiss Re’s finance chief John Dacey said: “While we firmly believe that the long-term interests of ReAssure are best served by a more diversified shareholder base, there has been no pressing need for Swiss Re to divest shares at a price that we consider to be unrepresentative of ReAssure’s value and future prospects.” He added: “We retain our objective to reduce Swiss Re’s ownership in order to de-consolidate ReAssure.” Proposals for the IPO included Swiss Re slashing its own holding in Reassure, which is Britain’s sixth biggest life insurer, from roughly 75 per cent to under 50 per cent. It hired Credit Suisse, Morgan Stanley and UBS to work as joint global coordinators, while BNP Paribas and HSBC acted as joint bookrunners.
Swiss Re has postponed its plans for a £3bn ($3.8bn) flotation of its UK life insurance operation ReAssure because of weak demand from investors. Trading had been expected to start in mid-July. The company said it would now focus on the sale and management of its other businesses, including property investment trusts (REITs), which are not part of the reinsurance. The flotation would involve Swiss Re reducing its ReAssure stake from 75% to below 50%.