News: UPDATE 1-Australia's Cover-More agrees to $551 mln bid from Zurich Insurance

(Adds details on deal)

SYDNEY, Dec 12 (Reuters) - Australian travel insurance provider Cover-More Group (CVO) on Monday said it had agreed to a A$741 million ($551.16 million) takeover offer from Switzerland's Zurich Insurance Group.

Under the deal, Zurich will acquire Cover-More for A$1.95 cash a share, a 48 percent premium to the target's last closing price of A$1.32 on Friday.

It marks Zurich's second acquisition in the Australian insurance market this year. Zurich in March purchased Macquarie Group's (MQG) life insurance division for an undisclosed sum.

Cover-More Chairman Louis Carroll said the board had concluded unanimously that the sale at a significant premium to the market price was an attractive outcome for shareholders. He said Zurich had proposed to operate Cover-More as a discrete business and retain the existing management team.

The deal will be executed via a scheme of arrangement requiring the approval of 75 percent of Cover-More shareholders at a meeting the insurer said was expected to be held in late March or early April 2017.

Cover-More said it expected to deliver earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation in the range of A$54-57 million for the financial year ended June 30, in line with the A$54.5 million forecast by six analysts polled by Thomson Reuters. ($1 = 1.3444 Australian dollars)