Australia's AMP Ltd and French insurer AXA SA has hiked bid for acquiring AXA Asia Pacific Holdings by 16 per cent giving the firm a time of one week to consider the revised bid. The revised bid has now reached to $11.7 billion.

AXA Asia Pacific, meanwhile, said that it has been evaluating the proposal and soon come up with an outcome.

AXA and AMP are now ready to pay A$6.22 per share on the basis of its prevailing share prices at the bourses. This offer is much above the earlier forecasts of market analysts.

Peter Vann, investment manager at Constellation Capital Management, said, "I've always thought it should be somewhere above $6. Over $6.50 is getting to be a bit of a stretch, so this is smack bang in the middle. It has to be under serious consideration now."

AMP is in the race to acquire 10 per cent stakes in AXA Asia Pacific including 53 per cent stakes of parent AXA SA. The firm plans to sell the Asian operations to Europe's second-largest insurer AXA SA after the acquisition.