August 2010/4

London-based wholesaler Lloyd & Partners has recruited onshore energy reinsurance specialist Chris McNamara from Aon Benfield as part of investment in its energy practice.

Towers Watson - the new entity from the merger of actuarial and risk consulting and management firms Towers Perrin and Watson Wyatt - posted a $58mn profit for the fourth quarter.

Global broker Aon Corp has disclosed details of the $2.5bn lending arrangement that will finance the cash portion of its $5bn cash and stock bid for consulting giant Hewitt.

Marsh has standardised wordings on its London aviation placement slips to include a 2.5 percent commission for market services, in the latest move by a global broker to increase revenues from its markets.

Australian (re)insurer QBE's net profit fell by 39 percent during the first half of 2010 to $440mn, in line with company predictions made last month.

Hiscox posted a 31 percent fall in first-half profits to £97.2mn, after being faced by a high level of catastrophes, low investment returns, unfavourable foreign exchange effects and the global soft market.

Amlin has delivered sound first quarter pre-tax profits of £108mn despite stinging catastrophe losses of $190mn and as its underwriters held the combined ratio to an impressive 88 percent.

"Unlikely to succeed", "Un-doable", "very surprised" (copyright all insurance analysts). These were just some of the comments rushed out after revelations that RSA had approached UK rival Aviva to buy its general insurance operations for £5bn.

“They’ll need to watch out – US brokers will have your arm off given half the chance!” exclaimed one London broker to us some years ago, as yet another Lloyd’s insurer unveiled plans for a shiny new US platform. 

We know that estimating insurance results is not an exact science, but some classes are supposed to be easier to gauge than others.

Expanding Lloyd's insurer Amlin has closed down its US platform after less than two years, as it failed to build on its presence in the fiercely competitive P&C markets.

Lloyd's motor underwriter Equity Red Star has been subject to a recent Section 166 investigation by UK regulator the Financial Services Authority (FSA), it has emerged.