LONDON -- The insurers of the kidnapped racehorse Shergar, missing for four months, said Wednesday they had been in touch with the thoroughbred's abductors and would pay his owners' multimillion-dollar theft claim.
A spokesman for Lloyds Underwriters said loss adjustors had been 'in communication' with the kidnappers regularly until about three weeks ago when all contact suddenly ceased.
No figure was mentioned for the payoff, but the winner of the English and French derbies was considered one of the most valuable racehorses in the world. He was reported to have been insured for $10 million to $15 million.
The 5-year-old horse was to start his second year as a stud this spring at $105,000 per mare.
'We are glad to pay,' said a Lloyds spokesman. 'That is what we are here for. We take the right premium and pay the right amount.'
Three gunmen snatched Shergar Feb. 8 from the Ballmany stables owned by the Aga Khan in Newbridge, 30 miles south of Dublin, in the heart of Ireland's horsebreeding territory.
The kidnappers demanded a $2.6 million ransom for the horse, the property of a 33-member syndicate headed by the Aga Khan, but police said they were never heard from again.
There were reports that Shergar had been killed. Several said a ransom had been paid in France after the Aga Khan withdrew large sums of money from Swiss and Middle East banks.
Lloyds was skeptical about the death reports, however, and said it would continue the investigation it started when the horse disappeared. 'There is no evidence he is dead,' said one Lloyds underwriter.
The Shergar kidnapping sparked the biggest hunt in Irish history, with some 150,000 landowners searching abandoned farmhouses, barns and stables for the horse. Police even followed the tips of three clairvoyants and psychics.
Irish police at one point believed the horse was in the hands of terrorists in Northern Ireland. Anonymous tipsters sent journalists racing all over the British-ruled province searching for clues.
The wording in Lloyd's announcement appeared to indicate syndicate members who insured only for Shergar's death and did not extend their coverage to theft would not be paid.
There was some doubt whether insurance coverage for theft also included kidnapping, Lloyds said, but a legal opinion confirmed it did.