new york (Bloomberg) — PartnerRe Ltd., the Bermuda-based reinsurer, amended its purchase of Paris Re by moving directly to a merger vote to speed up the acquisition.

The purchase had been structured to include an exchange offer, the insurer said late on Monday in a statement distributed by Business Wire.

The acquisition may become effective in December, PartnerRe said. The purchase would "significantly enhance PartnerRe's competitive position in the global reinsurance sector", Standard & Poor's said on July 6 in a statement. The all-stock transaction is valued at about $2 billion, according to a July 5 statement.

Paris Re, based in Zug, Switzerland, was formed in 2006 when a group of investors led by buyout firm Stone Point Capital LLC acquired most of the reinsurance operations of Axa SA, Europe's second-biggest insurer.