The board of Bermuda-based Omega Insurance Holdings Ltd has agreed to a £164 million ($265 million) takeover offer from UK insurer Canopius.The two companies announced yesterday that the Omega board had agreed to the Canopius offer, which amounts to 67p a share, a 2p increase from the offer made by Canopius on April 2.The agreement states that the Omega operations in Bermuda and the US will be integrated into the Canopius Group and will operate under the Canopius brand. The two companies’ local offices are on opposite sides of Par-la-Ville Road.Canopius has given assurances to Omega directors that the existing employment rights and terms and conditions of employment of all Omega employees “will be safeguarded as required by law and the relevant employment contracts”.Omega has been seeking a merger partner for more than a year. Approaches by Lloyd’s insurer Barbican, former Flagstone Re chairman’s company Haverford Bermuda Ltd and a previous offer from Canopius had all come to nothing.Last month, the company said its pretax loss doubled to $95 million last year because of a surge in catastrophe claims.Canopius said institutional shareholders owning 48 percent of Omega said they would accept the offer.Michael Watson, executive chairman of Canopius said: “Omega is a good business with a successful underwriting track record over a long period. The acquisition of Omega represents a significant acceleration of Canopius’ ambition to create a global and well diversified insurance group with a substantial presence at Lloyd’s.“The combination of the two businesses will result in an insurance group with enhanced scale and increased breadth of market offering and presence, including in the United States. We look forward to completing the acquisition of Omega as rapidly as possible.”Omega shareholders will be informed in writing of the terms of the deal within the coming days and a Special General Meeting is expected to be held in early June 2012. Subject to obtaining the required regulatory consents without delay, Canopius said the acquisition is expected to become effective by the end of July 2012.The 67p per share offer represents a 9.8 percent premium on yesterday’s closing share price of 61p on the London Stock Exchange.