August 2008/3

Risk Management Solutions (RMS) has launched new winter storm and severe convective storm models for North America to assess losses from different weather events.

Bermudian reinsurer RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd has terminated its retrocessional sidecar Starbound Reinsurance II Ltd.

Interbroker-dealer Evolution Markets has launched a new division for trading and structuring catastrophe derivatives following its successful entry into the weather derivatives market.

Ratings agency Standard & Poor's revised its outlook for the US commercial lines and property & casualty (P&C) sector to negative last week on the back of continued price softening and declining investment returns.

Sagicor Group of Companies has announced that group net profits increased by around $9mn compared with the prior-year period after profiting from the Lloyd's platform it acquired in September 2007.

Chinese insurer Ping An Insurance reported a 2 percent drop in its half-year profits with a rise in premium offset by a decline in its investment income as the company warned of possible further credit crunch-related losses.

German reinsurer Cologne Re, part of Warren Buffett's General Re group, posted first-half profits of EUR166.6mn, up from EUR129.2mn in the prior-year period, despite being hit by catastrophes in Europe and Australia.

Lloyd's insurer Hiscox Ltd has posted a rise in pre-tax profits with reserve releases, a solid investment performance and strong underwriting returns defying the gloom of the soft market and credit crunch.

Zurich Financial Services announced net profits of $2.7bn and a combined ratio of 96.2 percent for the first half of the year, but only after making higher than expected reserve releases of $609mn.

Bermudian headquartered Flagstone Reinsurance Holdings Ltd is to centralise its operating platform in Switzerland in a bid to maximise capital efficiency and take advantage of forthcoming passport rights.

Tropical Storm Fay is expected to reach hurricane strength after crossing western Cuba and is on track to hit Florida later today (18 August), according to forecasters at Tropical Storm Risk.

Benfield Group Ltd received a boost last week after Merrill Lynch upgraded the stock to "Buy" following its solid first-half year results.