Insurance giant Aviva plc has increased its offer for Direct Line Insurance Group PLC (LSE:DLG) to £3.4 billion, according to a Bloomberg report citing “people with knowledge of the matter”.
The reported 261p-per-share offer comes a week after Direct Line rejected an initial offer from Aviva valuing the business at £3.3 billion.
Direct Line said the bid was “highly opportunistic and substantially undervalued the company”.
Aviva insisted the initial offer was “a highly attractive proposal with high execution certainty, which also met Aviva's strict financial criteria for acquisitions”.
Direct Line has yet to comment on the reported second offer.
The Financial Times reported that one top Direct Line shareholder would only expect the board to consider an offer above 250p.
Proactive has requested a comment from Direct Line on the reported second offer