Three months after an initial offer, a bid by a division of insurance holding company American Financial Group to buy the rest of National Interstate Corp. that it doesn’t already own appears remains unresolved.

National Interstate disclosed on June 29 that a Special Committee of its board of directors rejected Great American Insurance Company’s offer to pay $30.75 per share of common stock for any remaining shares it doesn’t already own.

“After careful consideration, the Special Committee determined that the revised offer is inadequate and is not in the best interest of the majority shareholders of the company,” National Interstate said in its announcement.

These are discussions that have been going on for months.

Back in March, American Financial Group first disclosed a proposed $30 per share deal, worth $293 million, that would snatch up the remaining parts of National Interstate Corp. that subsidiary Great American Insurance didn’t already own. Before the announcement, Great American Insurance owned 51 percent of all outstanding National Interstate common shares, and current or former executives of GAIC or American Financial Group took 5 of 11 board of director slots at National Interstate.

American Financial, an Ohio-based holding company with about $50 billion in assets, focuses mostly on property/casualty insurance and specialized commercial products for businesses. National Interstate, a holding company for a specialty property/casualty insurance group focused on niche markets, still seems interested enough in American Financial and what it offers to keep the discussions going.

“The Special Committee intends to continue the options available to the company, including maintaining [National Interstate] as a public company and negotiating with Great American Insurance Company to seek further improvements to the offer” that reflect a higher value, the company said.

However, hedging its bets, National Interstate stressed that discussions aren’t guaranteed to result in an offer that it could support.

Source: National Interstate Corp.