American Financial Terminates Tender Offer For National Interstate

(RTTNews) - American Financial Group Inc. (AFG) announced that on Friday at a hearing held by the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, the court stated that it would grant a motion for preliminary injunction enjoining the consummation of the tender offer of AFG's wholly-owned subsidiary Great American Insurance Company or GAIC to acquire all of the outstanding shares of National Interstate Corp. (NATL) common stock not currently owned by AFG and GAIC.

In light of the court's stated intention, American Financial announced that GAIC has terminated the tender offer. The tender offer was previously scheduled to expire at 12:00 midnight, Eastern time, on March 17, 2014.

American Financial believed that the $30 per share all-cash tender offer would have provided National Interstate's shareholders with compelling value at a significant premium to the market price prior to the announcement of the offer.

American Financial noted that it continues to be the majority shareholder of National Interstate and highly values National Interstate's business, management team and employees. National Interstate continues to represent an important strategic component of AFG's overall operations.

GAIC will instruct its depositary, American Stock Transfer & Trust Company, LLC, to return promptly all shares tendered in the offer prior to termination.

In-Mid February, American Financial Group had said that its subsidiary Great American Insurance Co. has increased the price per share that it would offer to pay for the outstanding shares of National Interstate common stock not currently owned by Great American Insurance from $28.00 to $30.00 per share in cash without interest. The company then said that the $30.00 per share price was Great American Insurance's best and final price, and that no further increase to the offer price would be made.