April 2018/1

Chaucer's nuclear-focused Syndicate 1176 was the top performer for a third year in a row in terms of profitability, with a return on capacity of 54.7 percent, 15.6 percentage points higher year on year.

Markel Catco's London-listed Reinsurance Opportunities Fund reported only a 0.35 percent gain to net asset value in February for its ordinary shareholders exposed to last year's catastrophe losses.

The Incubex venture of former Brit CEO Neil Eckert is aiming to raise up to $5mn of additional equity, as it looks at trading opportunities in the reinsurance markets.

The Lloyd's syndicates of insurance-linked securities managers all made a loss in 2017 in the wakes of hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria.

Axa and Chaucer's African specialty venture Syndicate 6130 was the market leader in terms of premium expansion at Lloyd's last year.

Some 83 percent of Lloyd's syndicates reported an underwriting loss for 2017, as the year's elevated cats and underlying loss inflation pushed carriers into the red.

Losses from the third quarter catastrophes and changes to the UK personal injury discount rate pushed Faraday's Lloyd's Syndicate 435 to a £111.8mn ($157.4mn) loss for full-year 2017.

How such an eventful catastrophe year as 2017 could fail to dramatically affect pricing in a positive way seems to have surprised, and disappointed, many underwriting executives at Lloyd's syndicates.

Munich Re aims to construct an excess facility to raise cyber limits to $300mn through its Stream Consortium, according to JLT Specialty.

As the oil and gas industry adopts new techniques to store and process large and complex data, offshore and onshore producers face higher exposure to cyber attack, according to JLT Specialty.

Chaucer, StarStone and Atrium are all likely to see changes of ownership in the coming months as the elevated interest in M&A seen in Bermuda reaches Lime Street.

After abandoning the reinsurance market in the late 1990s and early 2000s, primary carriers are making a dramatic re-entrance, according to James Kent, global CEO of Willis Re.