Announced on March 3, 2020, the mega merger between the French insurer Covéa and the Bermudan reinsurer Partner Re [4] will not take place.

Given the current economic circumstances and the uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 health crisis, the French mutualist group decided on 12 May 2020 to abandon the acquisition of Partner Re.

Negotiations between the two parties ultimately ended in failure. According to Thierry Derez, CEO of Covéa, "the current situation does not allow the acquisition of Partner Re [5] to be carried out on the terms initially planned".

Covéa wanted to renegotiate the purchase price, initially set in early March at 9 billion USD, payable in cash. According to Exor, owner of Partner Re, the Bermudan reinsurer has strong solvency ratios and is not likely to be significantly impacted by the pandemic. Following the cancelled acquisition of SCOR, Covéa has thus suffered its second failure to penetrate the reinsurance market.