February 2004/4

Marsh reinsurance broking arm Guy Carpenter has launched the industry's first model for predicting the frequency and severity of class action law suits related to securities, which account for the majority of Directors and Officers (D&O) claims for insure

Research from the London Market Principles (LMP) Programme Office, shows that brokers expect to place 95 percent of their open market business on LMP slips.

Lloyd’s insurer Euclidian has bolstered its senior management by appointing former Brit chief operating officer Andrew Holland as chief executive.

Lloyd’s insurer Wellington Underwriting plc provided evidence that 2003 will be an excellent underwriting year for the Society when revealing last week that its Syndicate 2020 should make a profit of between 11 and 18 percent of capacity.

In its first full year after being carved from US insurance giant St Paul, Platinum Underwriters unveiled net earnings of $144.8mn after a strong fourth quarter contributed $49.8mn.

Finnish insurer and banker Sampo has said it will buy a controlling stake in non-life insurer If.

IPC Holdings Ltd celebrated its 10th anniversary last year but, upon revealing its results for 2003, showed investors it can still carve out book value growth as impressive as many of the younger Bermudians.

Shares in French reinsurer SCOR fell last week after the company revealed that its sales had fallen by a quarter last year, leading to fears that key customers have deserted the embattled firm despite attempts to turn the company around.

Bermudian newcomer Axis announced a 100 percent increase in net income for the year ending December 31, 2003, to $532.3mn, or $3.42 per diluted share. This compared to net income of $265.1mn, or $1.91 per diluted share, for the year ended December 31, 200

Bermuda based Montpelier Re reported net income of $99.9mn for the final quarter, which helped the reinsurer unveil full year net earnings of $407.1mn for 2003.

Specialty insurance holding company WR Berkley announced an increase in its fourth-quarter profits on the back of higher premiums.

The Navigators Group has announced that it expects it will record a net $31.6mn pre-tax charge on the back of higher than expected asbestos related losses.

The world’s most valuable insurer AIG has posted fourth quarter profits of $2.71bn, or $1.03 per share, with higher general insurance premiums and revenues contributing to the bottom line.

Aon’s 2003 results were broadly in line with analysts’ expectations, with net earnings growing by more than a third and positive work done on de-leveraging the balance sheet with more debt being repaid early. But despite this progress, operating earnings

Hannover Re’s upbeat assessment of 2004 renewals has encouraged the French bank BNP Paribas to upgrade its outlook on the German reinsurer.

Bermudian (re)insurer PXRe said on Wednesday (Feb 11, 2004) that its fourth-quarter net income had risen 71 percent from a year earlier, on the back of growth in its core catastrophe and risk excess lines of business.

A fourth quarter deficit was inevitable for the Bermudian giant XL Capital after a previously announced pre-tax charge of $694mn, and the operating loss of $2.54 per share was roughly in line with analysts’ expectations (First Call consensus $2.51).

Struggling insurance group CNA provided a fillip to its de facto owners, the Loews Corporation, after reporting its first below 100 percent combined ratio for the fourth quarter – the first time for more than four years.

Further rate increases and winning new businesses enabled reinsurance giant Swiss Re to grow premiums by 7 percent at the recent 1 January renewals.

The opaque but growing trend of brokers charging payments from insurers to place business with them has been attacked by an influential US think tank as “potentially damaging”.