The bid was £7.7bn ($10.3bn) as of 19 January 2025, which might make it one of many largest insurance coverage acquisitions ever accomplished. It’s unclear whether or not Beazley will settle for the deal at this level, as Beazley is urging its shareholders to reject the deal on the time of writing. Nevertheless, its share worth is hovering after the potential of the deal was introduced. Beazley had rejected a number of earlier provides from Zurich. Beazley is a frontrunner in speciality insurance coverage, together with cyber, marine, aviation, and fantastic artwork.
GlobalData finds that whereas Zurich is just not within the high ten main cyber insurers globally, it’s the second-largest participant within the UK SME market. It had a market share of seven% in 2025 for standalone cyber insurance coverage, behind solely Aviva (with 8.1%), in response to GlobalData’s 2025 UK SME Insurance coverage Survey.
One of many causes for the acquisition was mentioned to be that Zurich was making an attempt to cut back its reliance on the US market, partly as a result of declining energy of the US greenback, and create a stronger presence within the UK market. Beazley is a UK-headquartered speciality insurer, so it will undoubtedly improve Zurich’s footprint within the UK business and speciality market, in response to Reuters.
GlobalData’s UK High 25 Normal Insurance coverage Analytics device finds that Zurich is the fourth-biggest insurer within the UK with £3.5bn ($4.7bn) in GWP and a market share of 4.4%. Whereas Beazley has a a lot smaller share of the UK market, it does excel in specialised areas and may also help Zurich improve its unfold of experience and turn out to be a standout participant within the UK and international business market.
Moreover, cyber insurance coverage is an space GlobalData expects to see appreciable progress in over the subsequent few years. GlobalData’s 2025 Thematic Intelligence: Cyber Insurance coverage report estimated that the worldwide cyber insurance coverage market grew to $22.2bn in 2025, however that it’s going to practically double once more to $35.4bn by 2030. Due to this fact, Zurich figuring out a cyber specialist to accumulate reveals it’s concentrating on an enormous potential progress space within the insurance coverage business.