Perhaps you’ve noticed the weak dollar is spurring a feeding frenzy of foreign companies mounting bids for valuable U.S. assets in the multibillions (recent cases in point: InBev’s play for “King of Beers” Anheuser-Busch and Roche’s offer for biotech company Genentech). So why should today be any different? Only this time, the acquirer can be found in Japan.

Tokio Marine Holdings Inc., Japan's largest insurer, agreed to buy Philadelphia Consolidated Holding Corp. for $4.7 billion to almost double profit from overseas.

Tokio Marine will pay $61.50 a share in cash for Philadelphia Consolidated, the companies said in a statement today. That's 73 percent more than the Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania- based company's closing price of $35.55 yesterday. The acquisition would be the biggest by a Japanese insurer, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

"It's quite an aggressive move, but it is quite important for a Japanese financial firm to increase its presence in a major insurance market," said Mitsushige Akino, who manages about $560 million as chief investment officer of Ichiyoshi Investment Management Co. in Tokyo. "The premium must be a reflection of valuable assets at Philadelphia."

Tokio Marine has spent about $2 billion since 2002 on purchases abroad, expanding in countries including the U.K. and China as a shrinking Japanese population erodes the domestic market. The company said adding Philadelphia Consolidated will boost earnings from overseas by 95 percent to 62 billion yen ($575 million), or 35 percent of Tokio Marine's total.

The offer values Philadelphia Consolidated at about 14 times earnings, roughly the average among its closest peers, according to Bloomberg data. Philadelphia Consolidated carries the second- lowest valuation in the group at 8.4 times earnings, based on yesterday's closing share price.

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