December 2004/1

In our regular monthly News Digest, we round up key stories from the last month, presenting them to you in easily digestable snippets.

In our regular monthly News Digest, we round up key stories from the last month, presenting them to you in easily digestable snippets.

Benfield-advised European reinsurer Glacier Re set to launch next year The legendary investor George Soros is backing a new $300mn European reinsurer that will target specialist lines in areas such as aviation and marine, The Insurance Insider can reve

Preliminary estimates show 7 percent fall in capacity, as aligned capital hits record levels Early estimates of Lloyd's market capacity for 2005 point to a drop of about 7 percent, as syndicates adjust to the changing cycle, and the Franchise Performa

The decision by Marsh Ltd's chief executive Bruce Carnegie-Brown to commission an independent report into its activities proved to be inspired. At an apparent cost of £2mn, Marsh Ltd received "cleared of wrongdoing" headlines in all the UK newspapers read

The irascible former England Football manager Terry "El Tel" Venables once described mixed feelings as watching your mother-in-law drive over a cliff in your new car, and it is a sentiment which MMC shareholders might have some empathy. Although there

Recently merged US insurance giant St Paul Travelers faces losses over and above the $252mn reserve it set aside for a surety exposure on the so-called "Big Dig" project, according to analysts at Lehman Brothers. In a note, equity analyst Chris Winans hi

The removal of Jardine Lloyd Thompson Group's chief executive Steve McGill following a profits warning on 26 November has again focused attention on the broker's US expansion strategy.

Lloyd's-backed platform side-lined as broker goes to market with its own connectivity Brokers Aon is set to shake up the London Market IT consensus by launching an alternative to Kinnect, the Lloyd's funded platform designed to allow electronic transf

Merrett plc, the eponymous holding company founded by former Lloyd's deputy chairman Stephen Merrett, has gone into liquidation ten years after the group stopped underwriting, The Insurance Insider can reveal. The company, which had essentially been op

Despite concerns that downwards pricing pressure is building in many property catastrophe lines, cash-rich hedge funds are increasingly drawn to the perceived high reward reinsurance sector. In addition to providing private equity capital to back star