April 2008/2

Royal & Sun Alliance (RSA) has continued the disposal of its legacy business with the sale of two run-off portfolios in its Scandinavian subsidiary Codan to Wasa Run-Off.

Reinsurers faced increased competition and a softening market at the recent 1/4 renewals, according to Willis Re.

Sagicor Financial Corporation (SFC) - the Caribbean financial services group which bought Lloyd's insurer Gerling at Lloyd's and its Syndicate 1206 last year - announced an increase in net income to over $100mn in 2007.

Bermudian RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd has bought US crop insurance managing general underwriter (MGA) Agro National.

Lloyd's (re)insurer Advent Underwriting Ltd lost its chief underwriting officer Lloyd Tunnicliffe to rival Kiln last week.

Standard & Poor's (S&P) has granted AAA ratings to Berkshire Hathaway's start-up bond insurer.

Berkshire Hathaway has bought one million shares in German giant Munich Re in the last six months, according to reports.

Malaysian reinsurer MNRB Holdings Berhad has announced it is to purchase a 9.99 percent stake in British Islamic Insurance Holdings Ltd (BIIH).

European reinsurer SCOR has received an admitted Brazilian property and casualty carrier license as other firms continue to flock to the country in anticipation of its formal deregulation later this week.

The management buy-out of Gallagher Re's Singapore subsidiary led by Richard Austen - as first revealed in The Insurance Insider in February - has been completed.

Rating agency Standard & Poor's has become the latest firm to highlight the inadequacy of airline premium levels for managing the industry's future losses.

A slump in underwriting results in the US property/casualty insurance industry dented its profitability last year, according to Insurance Services Office (ISO).