December 2016/2

Following the sale of four other publicly listed Bermudians over the last two years, the $4.9bn agreed takeover of Allied World comes as little surprise.

Monthly share price data on The Insurance Insider's universe of P&C (re)insurers

The Insurance Insider's updated group of major non-life (re)insurers, The Insider 50, rose by 3.8 percent last week to close at 1,034.9 on Friday 9 December.

Property catastrophe reinsurance rates appear to be on course for further stabilisation at the 1 January renewals, equity analysts reported following meetings with executives at Bermudian carriers.

Lloyd's Names were presented with new investment opportunities in the run-up to 2017, with four out of five full syndicate start-ups securing Names backing.

Ariel's special purpose syndicate (SPS) 6117 led the market in terms of capacity growth for 2017, with its stamp almost tripling year-on-year to £145.3mn.

Lloyd's stamp capacity has surged more than 10 percent for the 2017 financial year to reach £30.5bn ($38.5bn).

The disposal of £600mn ($754mn) of RSA's UK legacy exposures could increase the likelihood of special dividends from the insurer, according to Keefe, Bruyette & Woods analyst Greig Paterson.

XL Catlin names Bermuda, London reinsurance heads; Enstar $919mn legacy deal; Wall to lead Fosun's US legacy push; Klein to leave Guy Carpenter; AIG's Pakistan loss; Aon Benfield works on new Emea facility; Axis in $1bn share buyback; Zurich Cover-More takeover; JLT's US account wins; The Hartford auto charge; Ropner wins injunction against former director; Wilson named as new Brit CEO; Aon considers benefits sale; Athene sells $1.1bn of IPO shares; IAG plans cost cuts; Aviation market resilience; Neon appo

Hong Kong-based reinsurance start-up Nine Merchants Re will initially target the largest markets in the Asia Pacific region ahead of attempts to diversify into the US and Europe, founding CEO Steve Warwick told The Insurance Insider.

Insurance-linked securities (ILS) executives said they would like shorter approval timeframes to be introduced into the proposals for a London market ILS regime.

XL Bermuda has turned to the cat bond market to line up as much as $1bn of retro cover in what is one of the largest transactions at launch in the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market's history, sister publication Trading Risk reported last week.

Investors are a ruthless lot when they want to be.

Shares in Novae fell as much as 27 percent last week after the London-based (re)insurer warned that its full-year profits would fall due to larger individual risk losses in the second half of the year.

Prices were mostly flat across commercial P&C lines during the third quarter, with commercial auto coverage providing the most significant increases, according to Willis Towers Watson.

Shares in Generali climbed 14.22 percent last week to close at EUR14.12 following volatile trading in Italian financial stocks.

Navigators has taken an agriculture treaty team from Ironshore International as it looks to build out its nascent reinsurance platform, The Insurance Insider can reveal.

Former AIG CEO Maurice "Hank" Greenberg lost a bid to block New York State's prosecution of fraud charges against him as the US Supreme Court declined to hear his argument for overturning a lower court ruling that ordered him to stand trial on the civil charges.

Arrowhead General Insurance Agency has shut down its San Francisco office and parted company with Caroline Barwick, little more than a year after she joined to launch a new all-risk commercial property cat facility, The Insurance Insider can reveal.

Hyperion's managing general agency (MGA) arm Dual has suspended its efforts to create a cornerstone panel of capacity providers for its non-financial lines book, The Insurance Insider understands.

The damaged Jubilee fields floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel Kwame Nkrumah is currently expected to cost (re)insurers as much as $1.4bn, The Insurance Insider understands.

Dear Santa,

As the 1 January renewal process enters its last fortnight a picture is emerging of greater downwards pressure on pricing for property than for casualty, and of the US market bottoming out faster than the international segment.