August 2010/4

Run-off acquisition firm and service provider Tawa has bought Island Capital, the run-off Bermudian trade credit and political risk insurer, for up to $15mn.

Charles Taylor Consulting (CTC) is to pursue seller RJD Partners for outstanding liabilities relating to its purchase last year of struggling run-off specialist Axiom Consulting.

Shares in London-based insurance services provider Charles Taylor Consulting (CTC) fell almost 30 percent last week after a profits warning.

Randall and Quilter (R&Q) trumped analysts' expectations as its first-half gross profit went up to £5.8mn from £1.2mn a year earlier on solid investment returns and diversification into new business lines.

Bermudian run-off acquisition firm Enstar Group saw net earnings for the first six months of the year climb to $28mn, compared to $20mn in H1 2009.

Fitch Ratings has found that all the European insurers it rates could withstand the shock of Greece defaulting on government debt after it carried out a major "stress-test" exercise.

London market directors' and officers' D&O insurers for Stanford Financial Group (SFG) have so far paid out $15mn in criminal and civil litigation defence costs, court documents reveal.

A US appeal judge has re-opened antitrust and racketeering complaints against a number of insurers and brokers allegedly involved in bid-rigging conspiracies.

Secondary trading spreads for US wind catastrophe bonds have risen to levels near the peaks last seen in 2009, according to Swiss Re.

Aon Benfield Securities has launched a set of indices to track the performance of catastrophe bonds, which it says will boost transparency on returns from the insurance-linked securities (ILS) sector.

Broker Willis cleared a US wind futures trade on the IFEX platform at the Chicago Climate Futures Exchange (CCFE) for the first time last week, in a $1mn block transaction.

Brit Insurance Holdings has continued to bolster its senior management while takeover talks progress with US buy-out firm Apollo.

Fresh from securing an impressive price for the small European reinsurer Secura, Willis' M&A team has won another mandate.

Losses may be accelerating for motor underwriters (see story 23) but there were bright spots for Lloyd's investors in the mid-year updated syndicate forecasts.

Jamie Lewis has resigned from RenaissanceRe after the Bermudian reinsurer replaced him as active underwriter on its Lloyd's Syndicate 1458.

Lloyd's insurers are enjoying better loss ratios despite the enervating effects of the soft market, if the industry's heavy cat loss burden is stripped out from the first half of the year.

Lloyd's motor underwriter Equity Redstar's losses on the 2008 and 2009 years of account could mount as high as £330mn.

Lord Levene of Portsoken's new banking venture, NBNK Investments, will compensate Lloyd's in full for any work time that he diverts from the Corporation to his new duties, The Insurance Insider has learnt.

Alterra-managed Syndicate 2526 is planning to expand its capacity by almost 60 percent for 2011, The Insurance Insider can reveal.

Lloyd's managing agent RJ Kiln has halved capacity at its property catastrophe Syndicate 557 to £60mn for 2011, despite forecasts of an active hurricane season in the US this year.

IT giant Hewlett Packard's (HP) independent subsidiary MphasiS is in advanced negotiations to buy Ri3K, with due diligence half-completed, The Insurance Insider understands.

American International Group (AIG) has pumped the proceeds of nearly $4bn received from International Lease Finance Corporation (ILFC) into its Federal Reserve Bank of New York (FRBNY) revolving credit facility.

Catherine Murray, a leading London market specialty (re)insurance producer, has left RK Harrison.  

Ex-Glencairn chief executive Nick Cook has held talks with BMS about joining the Lloyd's broker on completion of his "gardening leave", The Insurance Insider can reveal.

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.