Quotes from sources added

By Aidan Gregory

April 15 - (The Insurer) - Belgian insurer Ageas has raised 550 million euros ($624 million) to finance its acquisition of esure via an accelerated bookbuild on Monday evening.

Launched after the market close in Brussels on Monday evening following a wallcrossing exercise, the share sale consisted of 10.96 million new shares, equivalent to a 5.8% capital increase for Ageas.

The books were covered inside 15 minutes, according to a source close to the deal. The final offer price was 50.15 euros, a discount of 5.4% to the closing price of Ageas on Monday evening.

The size of the deal was increased from an initial target of 525 million euros due to the strength of the demand. The books were multiple times oversubscribed.

Bank of America and Deutsche Bank were bookrunners.

Ageas’ capital raising is the first major share sale in Europe since U.S. President Donald Trump imposed sweeping trade tariffs almost a fortnight ago, triggering a global equity market selloff.

“That is quite significant and shows the health of the market,” said a banking source close to Ageas. “It was an expected outcome that Ageas would be in the market, and it was well flagged. The market understood the strategic rationale.”

The proceeds of the share sale will be used to partly finance Ageas’ acquisition of UK P&C insurer esure, which it announced on Monday.

Ageas has agreed to pay Bain Capital 1.3 billion pounds ($1.7 billion) for esure, which it said it would finance through a mixture of spare cash and new hybrid debt or equity.

The Belgian insurer has also been provided with a two-year bridge loan facility by Deutsche Bank and Bank of America.

Ageas’ esure acquisition got across the line despite the intense volatility in capital markets over the past fortnight, with Trump’s “reprieve on some of the tariffs” last week providing the insurer with a runway to fund the transaction via equity capital markets, according to the banking source.

“A week or two ago, we wouldn’t have been able to do this,” said the banker.

The banker added that the insurance sector was seen by investors as a “good place to put money in” during the current bout of market volatility as the sector is only impacted by the tariffs on a “second-order basis.”

The deal is the latest attempt by Ageas to scale up in the UK personal lines market following two rebuffed bids for Direct Line last year.

In an interview with The Insurer on Monday, Ageas UK CEO Ant Middle said the deal for esure was the “right opportunity at the right time" for the Belgian insurer.

The deal is expected to close in the second half of 2025, subject to regulatory approvals.

Shares in Ageas were trading at 50.80 euros as of 9:14 a.m. (0814 GMT) in Brussels on Tuesday, down 4.1% from the previous close, giving Ageas a market capitalisation of 9.54 billion euros.