Farmers Holds the Key: Axa Midi Assurances,...

Farmers Holds the Key: Axa Midi Assurances, the Paris-based insurance group that seeks to buy Farmers Group for $4.5 billion if Sir James Goldsmith takes over Farmers’ British parent, BAT Industries, intends to pursue a U.S. presence if its current quest fails, said Axa Chairman Claude Bebear. Rejection of Axa Midi by regulators in any of nine states where Farmers’ insurance units are based would foil the hostile takeover attempt by Goldsmith’s Hoylake Investments, he acknowledged. But were that to happen, “we would try and try again” to expand into the United States, he said. Bebear added that Axa Midi could pay cash for Farmers but prefers to borrow in order to profit from tax benefits and available bank funds.