AXIS repurchases $200m of stock from Stone Point vehicle

Bermuda-based insurance and reinsurance company, AXIS Capital Holdings Limited, has repurchased 2,234,636 shares for approximately $200 million from an investment vehicle managed by alternative investment manager, Stone Point Capital LLC.

In a recent 8-K filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, AXIS announced that it has entered into a share repurchase agreement with investment vehicle T-VIII PubOpps LP (T8).

Stone Point manages the Trident Funds including investment funds that hold approximately 8% of the AXIS’ outstanding common shares, which will fall to around 5% following the repurchase.

AXIS is acquiring the 2,234,636 shares at a purchase price per share equal to $89.50, for an aggregate purchase price of just shy of $200 million.

Following the announcement, KBW noted that the purchase price per share is 1.7% below Friday’s close, leading analysts to forecast that the stock will trade up on news of this stock repurchase agreement.

“The transaction reduces Stone Point’s stake in AXS to about 5.4% from 8%, and is above our currently modeled 1Q25E repurchase of 400,000 shares for $36.8 million,” say analysts at KBW.

Further, analysts now expect the AXIS board to approve a new share repurchase programme in the near future, given the company’s previous repurchase authorisation has now exhausted.

KBW states that it expects AXIS to leverage “the improving capital flexibility stemming from its pending $2.3 billion reinsurance reserve loss portfolio transfer and capitalizing on AXS’ still-attractive valuation”.

In December, AXIS entered into an agreement to retrocede to legacy specialist Enstar $2.3 billion of reinsurance segment reserves, covering predominantly casualty portfolios related to 2021 and prior underwriting years.

This share repurchase agreement comes soon after the re/insurer announced a solid set of results for 2024, with net income of $1.1 billion for the year.

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