Swiss Re raises funds for GE reinsurance acquisition

Swiss Reinsurance Co. has raised over $1 billion in a capital market transaction to finance its bid to take over General Electric Co.’s (GE) reinsurance arm.
Swiss Re placed 13.9 million new shares at CHF92.25 apiece with shareholders and investors. The proceeds are CHF1.3 billion, or $1 billion.
The settlement will be made on May 12.
Existing shareholders have 9.6 million shares while 4.3 million sold in a global offering. The total number of stakes taken by investors is below the maximum amount of 18.9 new stock that shareholders had pre-authorized.
The transaction increased the Company’s shares up to 324.3 million from 310.4 million.
The Reinsurer reports raising $2.4 billion worth of new shares for the General Electric purchase, in addition to the funds raised in the recent transaction. In total the value of the acquisition is $6.8 billion.