February 2015/3

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

P&C (re)insurance stocks continued to trade up last week as The Insider 30 made a modest 0.87 percent gain

The Insurance Contracts Bill received royal assent last week (12 February), meaning it will now come into effect in August 2016.

Direct lending may present an interesting opportunity for insurers' investment portfolios, but they should not underestimate the amount of credit work involved, according to speakers at the Clear Path Analysis Insurance Asset Management seminar last week.

The Lloyd's Market Association (LMA) will focus on supporting the modernisation of the London market in 2015, according to its CEO David Gittings

A foreign profit tax hike included in President Obama's proposed budget would not lead to ratings revisions in the near future, according to AM Best.

Luxembourg-domiciled protection and indemnity (P&I) club Shipowners' Mutual is in a $13.5mn dispute with the Turkish charterers of a container ship that ran aground in poor weather off the Greek coast last year.

The UK government has increased the amount of money to be paid out to mesothelioma victims who cannot trace their insurer, under a scheme that is backed by the industry

The UK's Supreme Court has blocked the Welsh government's attempt to retroactively chase insurers for the cost of the asbestos crisis to the Welsh NHS.

The challenge of finding a decent investment return while maintaining a reasonable level of liquidity prompted UK government-backed terrorism reinsurer Pool Re to diversify its risk assets, according to its chief investment officer (CIO) Ian Coulman.

The US commercial auto insurance market continues to present challenges to underwriting profitability for a number of carriers, despite sustained rate rises over the last three years

Operating income for the US P&C sector is expected to decline for 2014 as reduced underwriting profits were only partially offset by slightly higher net investment income

US and Bermudian reinsurers are expected to find it increasingly difficult to generate double-digit returns on equity (RoEs) as the sector's earnings succumb to market dynamics, according to AM Best

The healthy flow of reserve releases that has helped support the US P&C industry's underwriting results in recent years is expected to "slow considerably" in 2015, according to AM Best

The international (re)insurance broking heavyweights reported a slowdown in organic growth in 2014 despite solid performance during the final quarter of the year

Bermudian carriers reported an improved underwriting performance during the fourth quarter, as lighter catastrophes losses, better underlying loss experience and higher reserve releases pushed the group's combined ratio below the 90 percent mark

Strip out the low cat losses and reserve releases, and underwriting results weakened in the fourth quarter, analysis from The Insurance Insider's Data Room demonstrates

Former Infrassure CUO Colm Kelly has said that his new onshore energy underwriting unit at Pioneer will deploy capacity cautiously and will also look to move into the offshore energy market in future.

The rail property insurance market is likely to escape a loss from a Metro-North Railroad commuter train collision with a car as it will fall within a captive deductible, Inside FAC has reported.

An explosion on a floating production, storage and offloading unit (FPSO) owned by BW Offshore is likely to hit the Gard and Catlin-led London marine cover, sister title Inside FAC has reported.

Allianz and Allianz Risk Transfer - a major fronting partner for Nephila - have lent support to New Paradigm Underwriters, a Florida-based managing general agency (MGA) that offers parametric hurricane cover, sister publication Trading Risk reported last week.

Ace and BlackRock have commenced fundraising for their new joint venture, ABR Re, which they are planning to launch on an unrated basis, sister publication Trading Risk revealed last week.

Investors in the P&C (re)insurance sector should consider "selling into strength" after most listed companies met or beat consensus estimates in their fourth quarter results, according to JP Morgan analyst Sarah DeWitt.

The fast-expanding Australian intermediary Steadfast Group Ltd is to raise A$300mn to acquire QBE's underwriting agency businesses in Australia and New Zealand.

Short-tail specialist Lancashire has indicated that it is not for sale as its head of investor relations Jonny Creagh-Coen played down the recent M&A fever that has hit the (re)insurance sector

Hamilton Insurance Group will look to build out its Lloyd's platform with diversifying lines of business and scaled-up underwriting resources, according to chief strategy officer Bob Deutsch

Susan Patschak's Florida Specialty Holdings team has struck a deal to buy out Florida carrier Safeway Property Insurance Company (SPIC) from its parent, The Insurance Insider revealed last week

US health insurer Anthem looks sets to exhaust its $100mn AIG-led cyber cover after it revealed it had fallen victim to a huge data breach, The Insurance Insider understands

A number of Suncorp's reinsurers have rejected a major claim, arguing that the cedant's policy wording exempts them from paying losses on Cyclone Yasi.

Stephen Catlin has made a hard three-year commitment to his prospective role at XL Catlin and a soft commitment for a further two years, suggesting that he will remain with Catlin after its acquisition by XL until 2020.

Chris O'Kane, CEO of Aspen, has sold a further 28,669 shares in the carrier at an average price of $45, grossing $1.3mn and bringing the total value of shares sold by the executive in recent months to more than $4.3mn.

‘EasyJet Re' ambitions; RSA promotes Walsh; Deloitte questions quake claims; AIG opens Oman branches; Gulf Re ‘too small'; Moody's downgrades OneBeacon; Metro-North collision; Groupama sells Mediobanca stake; JLT sells French broker; Fosun completes Ironshore investment; Mugge joins Ross; Windstorm Tini loss; Flood Re confirms MGA; Deal approval; Helios acquires LLVs

Insurance software firm Ebix has been chosen to deliver an IT platform to make electronic placement a reality in the London market, The Insurance Insider revealed earlier today (16 February).

Beazley's long-mooted special purpose syndicate (SPS) in partnership with Korean Re has been given in-principle approval by the Lloyd's Franchise Board, The Insurance Insider can reveal.

London-listed Brit Insurance has disposed of its heavily loss-making Italian medical-malpractice book to Riverstone in a $65.5mn legacy transaction, The Insurance Insider can reveal.

Lime Street wags had recently speculated about what would see the light of day first: the Chilcot Inquiry into the 2003 invasion of Iraq (commissioned in 2009), or the winner of the tender to provide electronic placement services to the London market.