The board of directors of French reinsurance giant SCOR have authorised the partial exercise of the call option to purchase 9,000,000 SCOR shares held by Covéa, representing 5.01% of SCOR’s share capital.
Under the June 2021 settlement agreement entered into between SCOR and Covéa in the presence of the Autorité de Contrôle Prudentiel et de Résolution, Covéa granted SCOR a binding and irrevocable call option on its full stake in SCOR – representing 8.8% of the share capital – at a price of EUR 28 per share.
The French reinsurer noted that once delivered by Covéa to SCOR, the shares will be sold to BNP Paribas Cardif through an over-the-counter transaction.
For some background on the situation, back in September of 2018, SCOR rejected a “hostile and unfriendly” acquisition offer by Covéa of €8.2 billion (US $9.6 billion), calling for Thierry Derez CEO of Covéa, to permanently resign from SCOR’s Board of Directors, which he did in November of 2018.
At the time, Covéa held an 8.2% stake in SCOR, having been its largest shareholder since April 2016.
As mentioned, in June of 2021, following the failed takeover talks that led to a string of accusations and investigations, the two firms elected to renew their relationship based on “trust and mutual support”.
