FBL Hires Firms to Evaluate Offer From Sister Company
Sidley Austin will be the legal counsel and Barclays Capital the financial advisor.
FBL Financial Group says it has hired a law firm and a financial advisory firm to evaluate an acquisition offer from a sister company, Farm Bureau Property & Casualty Insurance Company.
FBL has hired Sidley Austin LLP to be its legal counsel for evaluating the offer, and Barclays Capital to be its financial advisor.
(Related: A Midwestern Life and Annuity Issuer May Go Private)
FBL is a West Des Moines, Iowa-based life insurer. Its stock trades on the New York Stock Exchange, under the symbol FFG. The Iowa Farm Bureau Federation owns about 60% of FBL’s Class A Common stock and about 67% of the company’s Class B common stock.
The Iowa Farm Bureau also controls the Farm Bureau P&C company, and all three companies have offices at 5400 University Ave. in West Des Moines.
The Iowa Farm Bureau Federation formed the P&C business in 1939 and the life business in 1944.
The Farm Bureau P&C board recently made FBL a non-binding offer to pay $440 million, or $47 per share, for the shares of FBL that are not already owned by Farm Bureau P&C or by the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation.
FBL “cautions its shareholders and others considering trading in the company’s securities that the company only recently received the proposal and that the company’s board of directors has not made any decision with respect to the company’s response to the proposal,” FBL says in a comment on the offer. “There can be no assurance that any agreement with respect to the proposed transaction will be executed or that this or any other transaction will be approved or consummated.”
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