Filed under: Top deals, Financials and analyticals, Value and lack thereof, Public or private?

Liberty Mutual has agreed to acquire Safeco Corp. (NYSE: SAF) for some $6.12 billion this morning. Liberty offered to purchase all outstanding common shares at $68.24 per share, representing roughly a 50% premium to the closing price on Tuesday.

Safeco sells $5.9 billion worth of insurance policies annually, compared to Liberty Mutual selling some $20 billion annually. The deal will create the country’s fifth largest property insurer with a combined 15,000 independent agencies. Safeco will join Liberty Mutual’s Bureau Markets business unit.

The boards of both companies have approved the merger and the deal is expected to close by the end of the third quarter upon regulatory and shareholder approval.

Continue reading on 247WallSt.com.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008 at 2:16 pm and is filed under Financials and Analyticals. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.