A large technological vacuum created after years of neglect is at the heart of InsurTech’s recent rapid growth, delegates heard at InsiderTech New York.
The reinsurer has drawn up byelaws that can discourage the purchase of large blocks of common shares, and make it difficult to acquire control of the company.
If every moving picture had induced panic in spectators during the fledgling years of cinematic technology, you probably wouldn’t be reading this on a screen right now.
Is the P&C (re)insurance industry gradually losing its defensiveness? A defensive stock is one less correlated to the broader market due to lower macro-sensitivity, typically companies like consumer non-discretionary companies and utilities.
As a market watcher, attempting to determine which lines of business are underperforming syndicate by syndicate quickly proves itself to be a pretty meaningless exercise.
The big three brokers beat Wall Street estimates for the period, while results at AJ Gallagher and Brown & Brown were in line with consensus expectations.
Chaucer's nuclear-focused Syndicate 1176 was the top performer for a third year in a row in terms of profitability, with a return on capacity of 54.7 percent, 15.6 percentage points higher year on year.
Some 83 percent of Lloyd's syndicates reported an underwriting loss for 2017, as the year's elevated cats and underlying loss inflation pushed carriers into the red.
Catastrophe losses inevitably dominated the headlines in 2017. This is just the nature of the specialty P&C (re)insurance universe. Yet, the underlying results also continue to paint a bleak picture.
A cat-heavy third quarter, along with weakening fundamentals and indications of an underwhelming 1 January 2018 renewal season, weighed down industry stocks in 2017.
The majority of carriers in our coverage universe grew their books during the year, with the expansion largely driven by reinstatement premiums and back-up covers following the third quarter catastrophes.
Carriers in our global reinsurance composite showed diverging top line growth trends in 2017, with Swiss Re lowering its non-life P&C premium volume during the period while Hannover Re and Everest Re posted solid growth.
