Sir Peter Wood, the founder of Direct Line Group, has given his blessing to its proposed £3.6 billion takeover by Aviva after the two insurers struck an agreed sweetened deal on Thursday night.
Aviva lifted its offer by 10 per cent to 275p per share in cash and shares — enough to extract an agreement from the Direct Line board, which had dismissed an earlier 250p per share offer as “highly opportunistic” and “significantly undervaluing” the business.
Wood, who also said the original offer undervalued Direct Line, said the improved offer was “quite a hefty premium”. Direct Line shareholders were “probably better off having Aviva paper than having Direct Line with no guarantees it’s going to be successful,” he added.