April 2007/5

Fast growing insurer Canopius Ltd is looking at options to expand its platform outside Lloyd’s, Insider Week can reveal.

Bermuda-based Lloyd’s (re)insurer Catlin Group has confirmed that its Lloyd’s Syndicate 2003 will take part in Lloyd's new reinsurance operation in China.

Integro Ltd, the US insurance broker formed in response to the regulatory scrutiny into the US broking industry, has announced that Charles Waddington will join its facultative (Fac) team from Guy Carpenter & Co.

Bermudian reinsurer Arch Re has become the latest entrant into the burgeoning facultative reinsurance sector.

AXA has confirmed its acquisition of the consolidator Smart & Cook as the French insurance giant becomes one of the UK’s leading SME insurance intermediaries.

The changing of the guard among London’s mid-tier brokers continued last week after RFIB Group Ltd confirmed it had undertaken a management buy-out financed with private equity support.

Energy industry mutual Oil Insurance Ltd continued to see its membership decline as it confirmed last week that 13 more companies are set to leave.

US insurer Allstate Insurance has been ordered to pay $2.8mn to a Louisiana man whose home was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.

Strong results prove SCOR bid undervalued, says Swiss rival

The key to effective capital management in a softening market is underwriting discipline, according to Catlin Group CEO and deputy chairman Stephen Catlin.

Acquisitions of rival (re)insurers are potentially less risky than organic growth in a softening market, according to Nick Johnson, senior insurance analyst at Numis Securities.

Cat modelling firm Risk Management Solutions (RMS) has said the recent increases in Florida’s property values has exposed some cat bonds to a higher risk.