Endurance spent $13.7m on failed Aspen bid

Endurance spent some $13.7 million in the first half of 2014 on its failed attempt to acquire Aspen Insurance, the company has revealed in its second quarter results.

The majority of this cost was borne in the second quarter of the year when it spent $12.8 million on its bid to buy the company.

Endurance made an unsolicited £3.2 billion bid for Aspen earlier this year, which was rejected by the insurer’s board. Since then, the two companies engaged in a very public war of words as they battled to win the confidence of Aspen’s shareholders.

This culminated in Endurance seeking to force a special general meeting that would have paved the way for Endurance to buy the company.

But Endurance finally terminated its offer to acquire Aspen Insurance at the end of July. It blamed its withdrawal on Bermuda’s corporate governance laws and an unwillingness of Aspen's shareholders to take a stand against what it called the defensive self-preservation tactics of the Aspen board.

Aspen said that based on preliminary voting results, the majority of Aspen shareholders participating in the consent solicitation had rejected both of Endurance’s proposals.

John Charman, chairman and chief executive of Endurance, said at the time: “We appreciate the support of those Aspen shareholders who voted for Endurance's proposals. The votes of support for both of our proposals exceeded our stated thresholds.

“However, we believe the current Bermuda corporate governance laws, Aspen's focus on defensive self-preservation tactics rather than value creation and the unwillingness of Aspen's shareholders to take a stand, make it impractical at this time for Aspen shareholders to realise the compelling value of our offer.”