Insurer Canopius Group Ltd has cleared all the regulatory hurdles necessary to complete its acquisition of Bermuda-based insurer Omega Insurance Holdings Ltd — in turn clearing the way for Tower Group’s merger with Canopius Bermuda.Omega said in a statement on Friday that the merger was expected to be completed by 2pm Bermuda time today, by which time the Bermuda Registrar of Companies is expected to have issued a certificate of amalgamation.If all goes to plan, today will be Omega’s last day of trading on the London Stock Exchange, with delisting scheduled for 8am London time tomorrow.For Omega, today will bring an end to a saga that has dragged on for nearly two years, as the company has attracted a string of suitors, but not managed to strike a merger deal until now.Last year, Omega, based in Crown House, in Par la Ville Road, rejected offers from Lloyd’s rivals Novae and Barbican, Bermuda-based Haverford, and an earlier approach from Canopius.The £164 million ($257 million) deal values Omega at 67p per share. On Friday, Omega’s share price rose 0.6 percent to 66.75p in London trading.The inking of the Omega deal was one of the conditions for Tower Group’s proposed merger with Canopius Bermuda to proceed.Tower announced last month that it was exercising an option to acquire Canopius Bermuda, an option obtained in April this year when Tower had agreed to invested $75 million for a 10.7 percent stake in privately held Canopius Group.The deal would involve an affiliate of Canopius Bermuda acquiring all of Tower’s common stock. However, Tower will be the acquiring company under applicable accounting rules. The merger will allow New York-based Tower to have a Bermuda holding company.As Fitch Ratings stated at the time of the announcement: “This structure will allow Tower to take advantage of the lower tax rate afforded by the holding company’s Bermuda domicile and it is similar to the structures employed by many of its Bermuda-based competitors.”Canopius has already made clear that a merger with Tower Group will have no impact on the insurer’s Bermuda operations.“Following these transactions, Canopius’s Bermuda operations will remain under the leadership of Susan Patschak, chief executive,” the company said in a July 31 statement.“Canopius will continue to underwrite its existing excess casualty and property treaty business via Canopius Underwriting Bermuda Ltd, which operates as a Lloyd’s-approved coverholder for Syndicate 4444.“Canopius’s reinsurance carrier in Bermuda will become Omega Specialty Insurance Ltd, which will be renamed under the Canopius brand.”Asked about the operational impact on her and her team, Ms Patschak told The Royal Gazette: “The bottom line is there will be no change to the Bermuda staff or its operations.”She added that Canopius Bermuda, which is based across the road from Omega on Par-la-Ville Road, employs seven staff, five of them Bermudian.