Nabarro acts on £150m Beazley Group rights issue and placing

Beazley is a global specialist insurance and reinsurance group headquartered in London, and is listed on the London Stock Exchange’s main market for listed securities. It has underwriting operations in Lloyd’s and the US and an international network of offices in France, Germany, Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia

Beazley's board believes that an improvement in underwriting terms and conditions is occurring in the insurance market and that Beazley is strongly positioned to benefit from these improved trading conditions.

The proceeds of the rights issue and placing are intended to be used to scale-up Beazley's operations and accelerate its strategic growth plans and in particular to fund Beazley's acquisition of, and capital support for, First State Management Group Inc., a US-based underwriting manager specialising in commercial excess and surplus lines property coverage, which was announced at the same time as the rights issue and placing. The rights issue and placing will also provide additional capital to support the expansion of the Beazley group's existing underwriting activities.

Nabarro corporate partner Alasdair Steele led the Nabarro team, which also included corporate partner Iain Newman and associate Ben MacDonald. Proskauer Rose LLP provided US legal advice to Numis. Beazley was advised by Allen & Overy LLP. Lexicon Partners Limited was joint financial advisers to Beazley.

Commenting on the transaction, corporate partner Alasdair Steele said:

"The start of 2009 has seen an opening in the equity markets for listed companies to seek further investment from their shareholders. It is especially pleasing to see support from investors for growth initiatives such as that proposed by Beazley, as well as other recently announced issues to support existing companies' balance sheets. We were able to draw on Nabarro's capabilities in the insurance sector, where we act for high profile companies such as Hiscox, and use our extensive equity capital markets experience to assist longstanding client Numis with this successful fundraising."

If you would like any further information or have any queries please contact:

Charlotte Tandy
Lansons Communications
T +44 (0)20 7566 9706
charlottet@lansons.com