December 2005/1

A panel of High Court judges has thrown out an appeal by reinsurers against Justice Morison’s 21 December 2004 judgement in favour of claimant reinsureds and defendant brokers on all points in the notorious Aon 77 dispute.

SCOR will acquire one of the last trading arms of the defunct Alea Group after announcing this morning that it has agreed terms for the renewal rights of Alea Europe AG. Under the agreement, the French reinsurer will pay Alea Europe a commission...

Bermudian reinsurer Aspen today (6 December) increased its hurricane losses to a range of $470mn to $535mn (previous upper end of $400mn) and announced plans to raise $400mn in new capital.

Ratings agency Standard & Poor's (S&P) has downgraded the rating on Alea Group to BBB from BBB+ today (6 December), and changed its outlook on the company from negative to stable.

World’s third largest broker Willis announced Friday (2 December) that it had agreed to buy Swedish regional property casualty broker Nicon Försäkringsmäklarna AB. The acquisition is expected to yield annual revenue of $1.5mn.

Aon is to close six of its UK offices over the next year as part of the broker’s previously announced major restructuring drive that is set cost 750 jobs in the UK. The offices in Canterbury, Cardiff, Liverpool, Norwich, Plymouth and Shrewsbury are...

UK listed broker Jardine Lloyd Thompson Group plc (JLT) has ended its year-long search for a new group chief executive with the internal appointment of chief operating officer Dominic Burke to the position. Burke trumped colleague Mike Hammond, the...

Michael Segal, the founder of Chicago-headquartered independent insurance broker Near North, was sentenced to ten years in prison for purloining money from his firm. Segal, who was convicted in June 2004 of 26 counts of racketeering, fraud, and...

Lloyd’s insurer Chaucer has offered PXRE an exit route from its discontinued Lloyd’s business by agreeing to buy the troubled Bermudian’s subsidiary PXRE Ltd, which provides the capital for Syndicate 1224. The Syndicate, which stopped underwriting...

Canopius has agreed to buy the renewal rights to Alea’s North American facilities (re)insurance business, which will now be written through its Syndicate 4444. Under the agreement Alea will get 5 percent of gross written premiums over the next two...

Standard & Poor’s (S&P) has reduced its stance on Wellington Underwriting Agency’s Syndicate 2020 following the sudden increase in its estimates to Hurricane Katrina. “The downgrade follows the Nov. 24, 2005 announcement of a 69 percent increase to...

Validus Reinsurance Ltd, the Bermudian reinsurance start-up backed by the former MMC chairman and chief executive Jeffrey Greenberg, is set to go live later this week after raising $1bn in equity financing, Insider Week understands.