IPC Holdings Ltd. shareholders have voted against a merger with Max Capital Group Ltd. at the company’s annual general meeting held earlier today, The Royal Gazette can reveal.

Max Capital announced it has terminated the agreement and plan of amalgamation previously entered into between itself, IPC Holdings and IPC Ltd. in March after IPC shareholders decided not to approve the required proposals.

This was despite Max stockholders voting in favour of the amalgamation at a separate special meeting of shareholders also held today, while the Boards of IPC and Max Capital had both supported the deal.

Validus Holdings Ltd. also came in with a hostile bid to take over IPC at the end of March and has since upped its offer for the company.

Had the IPC shareholders backed the merger, it would have created the Island’s sixth biggest global underwriter with shareholders’ equity of $3 billion and total assets of around $10 billion.

Marston Becker, chairman and CEO of Max Capital, said: “The Board, employees and shareholders of Max were excited about the deal with IPC, and we are, of course, disappointed that IPC’s shareholders did not approve it.

“We believed and continue to believe that the combination of Max and IPC would have created significant value for both companies’ shareholders.

“However, we also believe that maintaining our perspective and discipline as a participant in this process was in the best interest of our shareholders.”