Specialist insurer Rothesay Life is planning a £3.5 billion acquisition of reinsurance company Swiss Re's UK branch, British media reported on Friday.

According to Sky News, Rothesay approached the Swiss company with a proposal to buy ReAssure sometime towards the end of last year. Although the status of their talks was inconclusive, sources said that Rothesay was seriously contemplating tabling a formal offer for ReAssure in the course of 2019.

Such a move would thwart Swiss Re's plans to pursue an IPO for the latter, which it announced in the summer of 2018. It also recently signed a deal with Japanese MS&AD Insurance Group Holdings to pump an additional £315 million into ReAssure. The move will raise its share in the unit by 10 percentage points to 25%.