Shareholders now have until 22 January to accept offer

Achilles, the private equity consortium set up to buy Lloyd’s insurer Brit, has extended the deadline for shareholder acceptance of its offer for the second time.

Brit shareholders now have until 13.00 London time on 22 January to accept the £10.75-a-share offer from Achilles.

The consortium is seeking acceptance of 95% of Brit’s shareholders. The original deadline was 27 December, but at that date it had only received valid acceptances from 70.78% of shareholders, and so extended the deadline to January 10. As of January 10, Achilles had received valid acceptances from 70.49%.

If the acceptance level has not been reached by 22 January, Achilles still has scope to extend the deadline further or lower the offer threshold.