Aspen Insurance Holdings Ltd says its shareholders have rejected Endurance Specialty Holdings Ltd’s proposals to move forward with its hostile takeover attempt.

Last Friday was the target date set by Endurance for receiving consents from Aspen shareholders to hold a special meeting aimed at expanding and shaking up and expanding the Aspen board, smoothing the way to a takeover.

Aspen said on Friday night that preliminary results provided by its proxy solicitor, indicated that “shareholders owning at least 76 percent of Aspen’s outstanding shares did not support Endurance’s proposal to call a special meeting at which shareholders would vote on a proposal to increase the size of Aspen’s board to 19 directors, and shareholders holding at least 81 percent of Aspen’s outstanding shares did not support Endurance petitioning the Supreme Court of Bermuda as part of a legal manoeuvre called an involuntary scheme of arrangement”.

Endurance first made public its offer in April and raised its bid to $49.50 a share, or about $3.2 billion, in June.

Endurance has argued that the combination of the two Bermuda re/insurers would allow the combined entity to compete more strongly and to slash corporate costs. Aspen’s board rejected Endurance’s offer as too low and adopted a one-year shareholder rights plan, which largely blocked Endurance’s bid unless Aspen’s board approved it, a move described by Endurance as a “poison pill”.

Aspen said in its most recent earnings report that it had spent $8.3 million defending itself from Endurance’s bid.