Bermuda-based insurance run-off specialist Enstar Group is offering £45.7 million at 5.2p per share for bombed-out Goshawk Insurance Holdings.

Fully listed Goshawk has still not recovered from hurricane and other catastrophe losses incurred in 2004 and 2005. The company says shareholders speaking for 50.01 per cent of its capital have irrevocably accepted the offer from Enstar, which is worth 49 per cent more than Goshawk’s average share price for the past six months. The company, focused on the Lloyd’s insurance market, has been concentrating on running off old ill-fated reinsurance policies written by its Bermuda subsidiary, Rosemont Re, and says Rosemont’s continuing uncertainties are likely to prevent any surplus distribution to shareholders until at least the end of next year.

That is why Goshawk, headed by Michael Dawson and advised by Numis Securities, is recommending Enstar’s bid as ‘an option to achieve finality’. Enstar’s chief executive officer Dominic Silvester says he is ‘pleased to have the opportunity to apply Enstar’s run-off expertise to Goshawk’.

Goshawk’s shares have bounced up 45 per cent to 5.09p on the bid. It may be the best that can be achieved, but it still represents distinctly cold comfort for investors who can remember when the shares traded above £1 five years ago.

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