August 2017/5

New York-headquartered private equity house Centerbridge is in advanced talks to acquire Sompo Canopius as part of a management buyout (MBO) of the Lloyd's (re)insurer, The Insurance Insider can reveal.

Third Swedish National Pension Fund (AP3) has confirmed it was a lead investor in the World Bank's pandemic cat bond.

A World Bank-backed $206mn catastrophe risk insurance programme has been launched in the Philippines to help the country better respond to losses from severe weather, earthquakes and other natural disasters.

Maiden has failed to find significant common ground with its former chief operating officer Bentzion Turin, who accused the company of fraud over a key $260mn transaction in 2009.

Munich Re has made its pandemic and epidemic risk business a separate profit centre under the leadership of Gunther Kraut on the expectation that demand for cover will increase.

P&C (re)insurance carriers delivered healthy returns in the second quarter, with the majority posting results that beat Wall Street expectations, yet investors were quick to punish companies on the stock market as underlying performances weakened.

Investment returns across the companies in our coverage universe were slightly up year-on-year in the three months to 30 June 2017, but remained at anaemic single-digit levels.

P&C (re)insurers benefited from another quarter of below-average catastrophe losses, as global cat events were absent in the three months to 30 June 2017.

Underwriting results across The Insurance Insider's main groups of P&C (re)insurance companies were helped by a low level of catastrophe losses in the quarter, yet underlying deteriorations continued to pressure margins.

Softening rates and a competitive market environment led most of the companies in The Insurance Insider's coverage universe to post lower top line growth rates in the second quarter of 2017 compared to the same period of last year.

P&C (re)insurance companies enjoyed a light cat quarter in the three months to 30 June 2017, reporting relatively healthy returns while the competitive market environment continued to pressure underlying margins.

Speculation is mounting over the future of Sawgrass Mutual's book of Florida homeowners' business after the company was placed into administrative supervision by its state regulator last week.

Upping the offer by 5p a share when there's no counterbid on the table might look odd to outside observers, particularly given the earnings miss published by Novae earlier this month.

Mitsui Sumitomo's $1.6bn acquisition of Fairfax's First Capital has demonstrated that the Japanese carrier is willing to pay a substantial price for deals which could foster fruitful strategic partnerships, rather than immediately transforming its earnings profile.

AIG is a lead writer of the primary $125mn property insurance programme for Harris County, Texas, the flood-struck area that includes Houston, The Insurance Insider can reveal.

Early indications point to Hurricane Harvey being more a flood loss than a wind loss, and more of a primary insurance event than one to keep reinsurers awake at night.

I've just had a terrible idea

As the floodwaters continue to rise in Houston, insurers are beginning to assess what looks to be a complicated claims situation that makes predicting ultimate industry losses from Hurricane Harvey highly challenging.

Axis Capital has attempted to "bring certainty" to its effort to buy Lloyd's insurer Novae by raising its agreed offer by 2.1 percent.