SiriusPoint's stock slides 9.4% after Dan Loeb's Third Point scraps plan to acquire Bermuda-based insurer

By Ciara Linnane

Move comes just a month after Loeb said he was exploring a deal

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%.

-Ciara Linnane

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05-12-23 1435ET

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