February 2007/4

European insurance giant Zurich Financial Services Group (ZFS) revealed its losses from European Windstorm Kyrill will not exceed $150mn.

UK-listed broker Jardine Lloyd Thompson Group plc (JLT) received a £14.2mn present last week following the merger of Continental brokers SIACI and Assurances et Conseils Saint-Honoré (ACSH).

Another Bermudian (re)insurer to bounce back from 2005 was Arch Capital, which almost tripled its full-year profits from $256.4mn then to $692.6mn for last year.

Lloyd’s reinsurer Advent Capital said it expected to make a profit of £22.8mn for last year, reversing the £74.8mn deficit a year earlier.

Lloyd’s insurer Chaucer Holdings has closed its 2004-year of account with a 17.2 percent profit, up from the previously forecast 15.9 percent.

Novae Group plc looks set to open an international general liability account later this year, Insider Week understands.

General Electric Co (GE) has lost a 10-year battle with insurers over payments relating to thousands of asbestos claims.

Bermudian catastrophe reinsurer Montpelier Re said the “favourable pricing environment” was amongst the factors driving it to a profit of $303mn, or $3.25 per share, last year, against a loss of $753mn, or $10.49 per share, in 2005.

Litigation continues to rumble on between aerospace giant Boeing and insurers of the 702 series of satellites it manufactured that suffered generic faults leading to total constructed loss claims in 2002.

Despite an initial rejection of its overtures, the French reinsurer SCOR has built a 32.9 percent stake in its takeover target Converium Holding AG after striking a deal with the corporate raider Martin Ebner.