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Guardian up for grabs
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November 23, 1998: 6:45 a.m. ET
U.K. insurer puts itself in play in possible $5B deal
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LONDON (CNNfn) - Guardian Royal Exchange, one of Britain's biggest insurers, has put itself in play, valuing itself at about 3 billion pounds ($5 billion).
Guardian (GRD) appeared to confirm recent press reports Monday when it released a statement to the London stock exchange saying it was "examining a number of possible alternatives, which may or may not lead to an offer for the company."
GRE shares jumped 11 percent to 341 pence in London Monday, but well off their high of 473 pence reached in February.
Investment bank Morgan Stanley Dean Witter is conducting the auction for GRE, and it is looking for a price of about 350 pence per share, according to the reports.
Analysts said the list of potential buyers includes several of the major continental European insurers, as well as some of the financial players in the U.K.
Names put in the frame include the U.K.'s Norwich Union (LSE:NU), Germany's Allianz (FALV), Axa (PCS) of France and Italy's Generali.
Some stock watchers said that even at 350 pence per share the deal looks cheap, "the market is not attributing fair value to GRE's assets," said an analyst who did not want to be named.
GRE has assets worth 22 billion pounds, and claims 7.5 million customers worldwide.
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