Sompo Holdings agreed to acquire Aspen Insurance Holdings for $37.50 a share in cash, about $3.5 billion. Sompo International will be the buyer. Aspen is a specialty property and casualty insurer and reinsurer, domiciled in Bermuda and listed on the New York Stock Exchange, with most of its business in the U.S. Its controlling shareholders approved the merger by written consent, so no further shareholder vote is needed. The deal The $37.50 price was a 35.6% premium to Aspen's closing price of $27.66 on August 19, 2025, and 24.6% above its 30-day average price. The deal was structured as a merger: Endurance Specialty Insurance, a Sompo International company, set up a Bermuda merger subsidiary that merged into Aspen, with Aspen as the surviving company. Aspen's Class A shares were cashed out and delisted from the NYSE, while its preference shares stayed outstanding on unchanged terms. The two sides said they might later redeem or repurchase them. Sompo funded the purchase with internal capital. Kyodo reported that it would draw on gains from selling strategic shareholdings, which Sompo had already been reducing. Morgan Stanley was Sompo's exclusive financial adviser and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom its legal counsel. Aspen was advised by Goldman Sachs and Insurance Advisory Partners, with Sidley Austin as legal counsel. About Aspen The controlling shareholder was Apollo, which held about 82%. Apollo took Aspen private in 2019 for about $2.6 billion and relisted it on the NYSE on May 8, 2025, when funds affiliated with Apollo sold 13.25 million shares at $30 each; Aspen itself received no proceeds. Sompo's price was 25% above that IPO price, set less than four months earlier. Aspen wrote about $4.6 billion of gross premiums in 2024. Its Lloyd's Syndicate 4711 wrote about £1.0 billion of that, with a combined ratio in the low 80s. Specialty lines include cyber, credit and political risk, UK property and U.S. management liability. Aspen Capital Markets manages third-party reinsurance capital. Strategy Sompo said the deal gives Sompo International a base in the Lloyd's market, where it had no presence, and adds depth in specialty and reinsurance lines in the U.S. and elsewhere. It also cited Aspen Capital Markets as a way to optimize capital and reduce earnings volatility. Sompo expected the deal to add to return on equity right away and plans to integrate Aspen with its overseas insurance business.
