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The $11 billion merger of Bermuda-based PartnerRe Ltd. and Axis Capital Holdings Ltd. accelerates the trend of offshore reinsurers combining to remain competitive. The stock-swap deal announced Jan. 25 is the third in as many months in a sector hit by pricing pressure from an ongoing influx of private equity capital and strong competition among traditional reinsurers. The combination will create the fifth-largest reinsurer in the world. PartnerRe shareholders will own 51.6% of the combined company, for which a name has not yet been chosen, and Axis shareholders will own 48.4%. This mega-deal is expected to close in the second half of this year. The transaction follows Dublin-based XL Group P.L.C.'s Jan. 9 proposed acquisition of Bermuda-based Catlin Group Ltd. in a $4.1 billion deal and Bermuda-based RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd.'s Nov. 24, 2014, acquisition of Bermuda-based Platinum underwriters Holdings Ltd. in a $1.9 billion deal. "I think it is absolutely a trend and I think, ultimately, it's all driven by the same factors," said Cliff Gallant, San Francisco-based analyst at Nomura Securities Co. Ltd. "There is a lot of pressure in reinsurance; prices are coming down and the product is changing. I expect that the wave is building and that we'll definitely see more M&A activity." Meyer Shields, managing director at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Inc. in Baltimore, said: "This is a trend, it is accelerating and I don't think we're anywhere near done with this sort of announcement." "After a relative calm of several years, it seems the floodgates have opened for consolidation in Bermuda," Amit Kumar, New York-based vice president and senior analyst of insurance at Macquarie Capital (USA) Inc., wrote in an analyst note that also cited the RenRe/Platinum and XL/Catlin deals. Axis Capital CEO Albert Benchimol, who will head the combined entity, said in an interview: "I feel very confident that with the increased scale of the organ