February 2005/5

The end of February brought news of more MMC executives defecting to rival organisations including reinsurance broker Benfield Group’s capture of Marsh’s head of global marine and energy practice John Lapsley.

As predicted in the December 2004 edition of our sister publication The Insurance Insider, Jubilee Managing Agency Ltd has announced the acquisition of the Cassidy Davis business from St Paul Travelers’ Lloyd’s operation.

Australian insurance company QBE announced record after tax 2004 profits of A$820mn last Thursday (24 February), an increase of 43 percent on the A$572mn it made in the previous year.

MMC-backed Danish Re – which writes business at Lloyd’s through its Syndicate 1400 – has been bought by Imagine Insurance Company Ltd, a subsidiary of Barbados-based Imagine Group.

Simon Clapham, the active underwriter of Brit Syndicate 2987, left Brit Insurance Holdings last week.

Bermudian headquartered Endurance has appointed Gunther Saacke to head up the property and casualty treaty reinsurance operation in its London office.

Last Thursday (24 February) saw the launch of Trade Credit Re (TCRe), a new entrant in the trade credit insurance market.

(Re)insurance broker Cooper Gay announced record results this month (17 February) with total income up 3 percent to £52.1mn and pre-tax profits increasing by more than 2 percent to £8.3mn.

Max Re’s decision to focus more on traditional reinsurance has inspired the reinsurer to reshuffle its senior management. Former ART vice-president John Doucette has been appointed president and chief underwriting officer of Max Re Ltd’s reinsurance divis

Promina, the spin-off of Royal & Sun Alliance’s Australasian operation, reported a 53.7 percent increase in pre-tax net profit to A$458mn in its first full year as a standalone company.

After a tumultuous six months, the Board of directors of Swiss reinsurer Converium have replaced chief executive Dirk Lohmann with the company’s managing director Terry G Clarke.

Growing losses from last autumn’s hurricanes contributed to property catastrophe specialist IPC Re reporting lower than expected fourth quarter results last Tuesday (22 February).