In an approximately $2 billion stock deal, the Bermuda-based reinsurance PartnerRe Ltd. is set to takeover its smaller Swiss rival Paris Re!

Announcing about the deal on Sunday, Partner Re said that the transaction will make an addition of nearly $1.4 billion of gross written premiums to the company. The re-insurer will exchange 0.30 of its common shares for each common share of Paris Re, thereby acquiring 57 percent of Paris Re’s outstanding common stock. At the same exchange ratio, PartnerRe has earlier bought 6 percent of Paris Re’s shares.

Hence, the terms of the deal entail that with a 57 percent stake in Paris Re, PartnerRe will, in essence, take over Paris Re’s private equity investors, who, in 2007, formed the company after the acquisition of AXA’s reinsurance business. 

The ‘PartnerRe-Paris Re’ merged company will have almost 1,400 employees and about $23 billion in total assets.

Indicating that Paris Re’s clean balance sheet and focus on reinsurance gives the company a distinct edge, Patrick Thiele – PartnerRe’s President and CEO – said that the deal will “provide more balance and stability to our company in the face of uncertain and volatile financial and reinsurance markets. We think this acquisition secures our future for some time, no matter what the environment will be in the next year or two.”