Sirius International Insurance Group is hitting the public markets in a bid to raise capital, pursue acquisitions and grow.

“Access to the public equity markets will facilitate and accelerate our future growth via M&A transactions and organically,” Allan Waters, chairman, president and CEO of Sirius Group, explained in prepared remarks.

The Bermuda-based multiline insurance and reinsurance group said it will go public and be traded on the Nasdaq by way of a planned merger with a division of private asset management holding company Easterly LLC.

The deal would merge the publicly traded Easterly Acquisition Corp. with Sirius, making it a wholly owned subsidiary of the insurer and reinsurer. Once the deal closes, Easterly’s common stock would be exchanged for Sirius Group’s common shares at 1.05 times Sirius Group’s pro-forma diluted GAAP book value per share as of June 30. Once the merger takes place, Sirius Group’s common stock will trade on the Nasdaq.

Assuming there are no redemptions by Easterly shareholders, the proposed all-stock transaction would produce a combined entity worth $2.2 billion, where current Easterly shareholders will own about 7 percent of the combined company. Easterly plans a shareholder meeting on June 28, where the vote will be on approving a time extension for the merger through Nov. 30.

As part of the deal, plans for Sirius to buy a controlling interest in Israeli insurer Phoenix Holdings will terminate by July 2, according to the announcement.

Sirius, launched in 1945, operates in more than 140 countries and wrote $1.4 billion in gross written premiums in 2017. Its main shareholder is CMIG International Holding Pte. Ltd., a China-based investment group that bought Sirius from White Mountains Insurance Group for $2.6 billion in 2016.

Source: Sirius International Insurance Group