The stock of specialty insurer and reinsurer SiriusPoint Ltd. slid 9.4% Friday, after Dan Loeb’s hedge fund Third Point Management said it’s no longer exploring an acquisition of the company.
The news comes just a month after Loeb expressed an interest in the Bermuda-based company and said he believed it would be best positioned to execute a turnaround strategy as a private company.
On Friday, the deal was off after the parties failed to agree on price, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
The parties have had exploratory discussions, but “they have been unable to reach consensus on the value of a potential transaction,” said the filing.
Loeb reiterated, however, his confidence that the company’s management team, led by Chief Executive Scott Egan, “ is undertaking the necessary steps to position the Issuer for long-term success by strengthening its balance sheet and enhancing its credit ratings.”
Third Point owns 14.2 million shares in SiriusPoint
SPNT,
equal to a 9.3% stake, according to the filing.
SiriusPoint posted first-quarter earnings last week, showing a swing to a profit of $138.6 million, or 78 cents a share, after a loss of $217 million, or $1.36 a share, in the year-earlier quarter. The FactSet consensus was for EPS of 30 cents.
Egan said it was the first net profit since the second quarter of 2021.
Gross written premiums came to $1.1 billion. The company had underwriting income of $156.5 million, up from $33.5 million a year ago. Net investment income came to $61.5 million, up from $7.8 million a year ago. Total revenue came to $684.9 million, up from $361.4 million.
The stock is still up 54% in the year to date, while the S&P 500 has gained 7.5%.
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