Validus Has the Superior Offer for Transatlantic

Validus Holdings, Ltd. VR today responded to statements by Transatlantic Holdings, Inc. TRH regarding Validus' Exchange Offer. Ed Noonan, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Validus, said, “We are disappointed but not surprised by today's response from the Transatlantic Board, particularly given their prior demand that we agree to a restrictive standstill before entering into discussions regarding our Superior Proposal. We believe their insistence on a standstill agreement is nothing more than a poorly disguised attempt to prevent us from bringing our Superior Proposal to Transatlantic stockholders. Today, the Transatlantic Board has taken further steps to entrench themselves by establishing a poison pill, initiating meritless legal action, and changing corporate by-laws in an apparent effort to more easily manipulate stockholder meetings. These actions appear to be intentionally designed to trample on the rights of Transatlantic's stockholders.” “Validus believes that these actions by the Transatlantic directors – willfully burying their heads in the sand and blaming it on their ill-advised acquisition agreement with Allied World – are inconsistent with their fiduciary duties to Transatlantic's owners.”