Zurich targets Beazley to lead global speciality market

Zurich is looking to strike a deal to acquire Beazley and cement its place as one of the leading commercial insurers globally.

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The bid was £7.7bn ($10.3bn) as of 19 January 2025, which would make it one of the largest insurance acquisitions ever completed. It is unclear whether Beazley will accept the deal at this point, as Beazley is urging its shareholders to reject the deal at the time of writing. However, its share price is soaring after the possibility of the deal was announced. Beazley had rejected several previous offers from Zurich. Beazley is a leader in speciality insurance, including cyber, marine, aviation, and fine art.

GlobalData finds that while Zurich is not in the top ten leading cyber insurers globally, it is the second-largest player in the UK SME market. It had a market share of 7% in 2025 for standalone cyber insurance, behind only Aviva (with 8.1%), according to GlobalData’s 2025 UK SME Insurance Survey.

One of the reasons for the acquisition was said to be that Zurich was trying to reduce its reliance on the US market, partly due to the declining power of the US dollar, and create a stronger presence in the UK market. Beazley is a UK-headquartered speciality insurer, so it would undoubtedly increase Zurich’s footprint in the UK commercial and speciality market, according to Reuters.

GlobalData’s UK Top 25 General Insurance Analytics tool finds that Zurich is the fourth-biggest insurer in the UK with £3.5bn ($4.7bn) in GWP and a market share of 4.4%. While Beazley has a much smaller share of the UK market, it does excel in specialised areas and can help Zurich increase its spread of expertise and become a standout player in the UK and global commercial market.

Furthermore, cyber insurance is an area GlobalData expects to see considerable growth in over the next few years. GlobalData’s 2025 Thematic Intelligence: Cyber Insurance report estimated that the global cyber insurance market grew to $22.2bn in 2025, but that it will nearly double again to $35.4bn by 2030. Therefore, Zurich identifying a cyber specialist to acquire shows it is targeting a huge potential growth area in the insurance industry.