offer to buy a French specialist insurer.

The offer has been made by reinsurance giant and PartnerRe shareholder Swiss Re, which said yesterday it has agreed to buy the majority stake in Societe Anonyme Francaise de Reassurances (SAFR), a 113-year-old direct reinsurer.

Swiss Re, which already holds 22 percent of SAFR, said yesterday it would buy 57 percent of SAFR from Assurances Generale de France (AGF) and Athena for $543 million. It also offered to buy the remaining 21 percent of shares in public hands.

In a statement, PartnerRe said it would consider buying SAFR from Swiss Re with talks expected to be concluded by the end of March. PartnerRe said that should it decide to buy the company, it anticipated purchasing it for cash and stock.

Under the terms of Swiss Re's offer, SAFR would be valued at $952 million.

The offer is a departure for PartnerRe, which has placed strong emphasis on its commitment to the catastrophe insurance market. But PartnerRe president and CEO Herbert Haag said: "While we will maintain our specialisation as a catastrophe reinsurer, we believe that a combined operation could significantly diversify our portfolio, both in terms of geography and lines of business, and expand our global market presence through the establishment of valuable new client relationships.

"We felt it was such a unique opportunity that it would be worthwile to go and ahead and look at it. It may be the first time that a Bermuda company has looked at one of the highest quality insurance companies in the world.'' SAFR earned $57 million in 1995. Three quarters of its business was written in Europe and 92 percent of its business is in the non-life sector.

PartnerRe declared net income of $249.7 million in 1996 and wrote 96 percent of its business in the US.