AXA, AMP raise bid for AXA Asia Pacific to $11.7 bln

MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Australia's AMP Ltd (AMP.AX) and French insurer AXA SA (AXAF.PA) have sweetened their takeover offer for AXA Asia Pacific Holdings AXA.AX by 16 percent to $11.7 billion and given the target one week to agree to the new bid.

AXA Asia Pacific said on Monday it was considering the offer, after having rejected its suitors' unsolicited proposal last month as undervaluing the growth potential in its Asian businesses.

The new offer is worth A$6.22 per share, based on AMP's closing price last Friday, against the implied value of the original offer at A$5.34 a share.

AMP and AXA SA are offering 0.6896 AMP shares plus A$1.92 in cash a share, increasing the cash component from A$1.38 in the previous offer.

Under the deal, AMP plans to buy all the shares in AXA Asia Pacific, including parent AXA SA's 53 percent stake, and then sell the Asian operations to AXA SA, Europe's second-largest insurer, but keep the Australia & New Zealand businesses.

The new offer is higher than analysts had predicted to get a deal over the line.

"I've always thought it should be somewhere above $6. Over $6.50 is getting to be a bit of a stretch, so this is smack bang in the middle. It has to be under serious consideration now," said Peter Vann, investment manager at Constellation Capital Management.

The revised offer raises the equity value of the Asian operations to A$9.1 billion ($8.30 billion) from A$7.7 billion in the original offer, and it bumps up the equity value on the Australian and New Zealand operations to A$3.7 billion.

AXA SA said it will pay 44 cents a share of the 54 cents increase to cash component.

(Reporting by Sonali Paul)