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.
London-based carriers generated mixed returns last year, with Beazley still delivering a relatively healthy profit, Hiscox just staying afloat and Lancashire sinking to a loss.
Top line movements contrasted at our group of London-listed carriers in 2017, with each company targeting different opportunities in a difficult market environment.
The Insurance Insider's group of London-listed carriers - Beazley, Hiscox and Lancashire - all posted worse underwriting margins for 2017 due to the year's catastrophe events.
On Monday Axa surprised markets with a $15.3bn deal to purchase Bermudian (re)insurer XL, with the $57.60 a share offer representing a 33 percent premium to the target's closing share price on 2 March.
Operating returns on equity fell by 4.3 percentage points year on year to 5.4 percent in 2017 for our group of US specialty carriers, as the year's elevated cat losses eroded underwriting margins.
Companies in our US specialty composite mostly posted higher combined ratios in Q4 2017, driven predominantly by increased underlying loss ratios, as well as slowing reserve releases.
Gross written premiums for our group of US specialty insurers increased by 12.6 percent to $6.0bn in the fourth quarter, the strongest quarterly growth rate in the past four years.
Underlying results at Bermuda-based (re)insurers worsened in the fourth quarter of 2017, as the group's accident-year ex-cat loss ratio deteriorated year on year.
Although Q4 was another messy and loss-hit quarter for Bermudian carriers, when looking at the group's results it is perhaps more important to step back and observe the full-year and longer-term trends
P&C (re)insurance stocks moved in line with wider market indices during the equity sell-off over the past fortnight, despite the fact non-life names are often viewed as safe-haven investments that protect against market volatility.
In considering a $10bn investment in Swiss Re, acquisitive Japanese conglomerate SoftBank is looking to buy into the only European reinsurer which is trading below book value.
Underlying loss ratios in the fourth quarter increased at all but one of the P&C (re)insurers in our study, highlighting the prevalent trend of loss-cost inflation running ahead of earned rate.
Fourth quarter expense ratios at early reporters have shown some year-on-year improvement, although the US tax reforms had a negative impact at some firms.
Validus looks set to secure a premium takeout multiple relative to other recent Bermudian sellers after AIG agreed to acquire the business for $5.56bn, or 1.58x fully diluted book value.
Validus looks set to secure a premium takeout multiple relative to other recent Bermudian sellers after AIG agreed to pay $5.56bn, or 1.58x fully diluted book value, to buy the business.
The P&C (re)insurance industry is set to disclose another set of dented earnings for the final three months of a year blemished by historic levels of catastrophe activity.
Liberty Mutual emerged as the market leader in the northeast US, where primary homeowners' insurers face the prospect of mounting claims from subzero temperatures and heavy snowfall
The Insurance Insider's index of 50 P&C (re)insurance companies - The Insider 50 - grew by 11.3 percent in 2017 to 1,149.63 index points, a median performance relative to other major market indices.
Reinsurers failed to achieve the sought-after magnitude of rate increases at the 1 January renewals, but they will benefit from an improved trading environment in the year ahead, according to Willis Re.
Domestic carriers that are heavily concentrated in the US will benefit the most from a cut in the corporate tax rate to 21 percent from 35 percent, with equity analysts estimating around a double-digit uplift in next year's earnings
Equity analyst meetings in Bermuda have pointed to lower reinsurance pricing increases than initially anticipated at the January renewals, with rate rises in US property in the high single digits and only loss- impacted accounts seeing double-digit growth.
US nationwide carriers recorded the largest net exposures to losses from the wildfires that struck California in October relative to the P&C industry's other peer groups.
US nationwide carriers recorded the largest net exposures to losses from the wildfires that struck California in October relative to the P&C industry's other peer groups.
Shares in The Hartford closed down more than 3 percent today in New York after equity analysts lowered earnings estimates in response to the $2.05bn sale of the US insurer's Talcott run-off and annuity unit.
Investment returns remained subdued year-on-year for the vast majority of the companies in our analysis, ranging from 1.7 percent to 6.5 percent for the third quarter
Underwriters continued to suffer the effects of years of soft rates in the third quarter, with underlying margins from the liability side of the balance sheet again being squeezed for most of the P&C (re)insurers in our analysis
The third quarter catastrophes are estimated to have generated around $100bn in insured losses - still the most widely circulated claims tally despite recent market scepticism, with only around a third of that sum having been publicly disclosed to date.
P&C (re)insurance companies suffered perhaps the heaviest ever cat quarter on record in the three months to 30 September 2017, as the active hurricane season along with two earthquakes in Mexico generated billions of dollars of claims.
Investment returns remained subdued year-on-year for the vast majority of the companies in our analysis, ranging from 1.7 percent to 6.5 percent for the third quarter.
Swiss Re has emerged as the largest reinsurer for the biggest Californian primary P&C writers, with nearly $2.0bn of premiums assumed in 2016 and reinsurance relationships with seven out of the top 10 regional insurers, analysis from The Insurance Insider shows
As the industry continues its search for the missing pieces of the Q3 cat loss puzzle, recent syndicate loss projections may point to Lloyd's as a potential source of some of the absent claims.
The global reinsurers took significant hits from the third quarter hurricane activity, but earnings disclosures also revealed diverging ex-cat underwriting performances in the period.
The Insurance Insider's composite of global non-life reinsurance writers posted year-on-year top line increases for the third quarter, but a number of the group attributed large portions of the growth to reinstatement premiums.
The Insurance Insider's US specialty composite recorded a third quarter operating loss on equity as all the companies in the group absorbed major claims from the period's catastrophe events
US specialty combined ratios escalated well into triple digits in the third quarter following elevated catastrophe losses, while ex-cat underwriting performances improved overall year-on-year.
US specialty players continued to increase their exposure during the third quarter of 2017, with gross written premiums (GWP) rising by 10.8 percent, according to analysis by The Insurance Insider.
Universal Insurance Holdings net income plunged 63 percent in the third quarter as claims from Hurricane Irma eroded the Florida carrier’s underwriting profits.
Bermuda-based carriers not only saw their third quarter earnings evaporate but also as much as six quarters worth of operating profits following an active hurricane season that is expected to yield up to $100bn in industry insured losses.
Bermuda-based carriers actively pursued cost reductions in the third quarter as core margins deteriorated and the past quarter's hurricane season sent combined ratios into the triple digits.
Bermudian third quarter gross written premiums (GWP) increased by 20.4 percent on the prior-year period to reach $7.8bn, fuelled by reinstatement premiums triggered by the quarter's elevated level of catastrophe losses.
Third quarter results revealed widespread shrinking in reserve releases, with the majority of carriers that have reported so far posting a decline in favourable prior-year development relative to their respective premium bases.
As growing loss ratios continued to pressure underwriting margins, third quarter results so far have revealed that (re)insurers turned to expense management to improve their results, while reduced variable compensation also came to the rescue.
P&C (re)insurers reported yet another quarter of deteriorating underlying margins, as third quarter accident-year ex-cat loss ratios rose by 1.3 percentage points year-on-year on a simple average basis at the companies under our coverage that have reported so far.
P&C (re)insurers in our coverage group that have reported third quarter results so far have revealed strong top-line increases, with around half of their gross written premiums (GWP) growth rates well up into double-digit territory.
With the recent hurricane season producing one of the costliest third quarters in history, underwriting profits have, unsurprisingly, been absent from Q3 earnings disclosures.
The third quarter could still go down as the costliest in the (re)insurance industry's history, with almost all the companies to report so far dragged to a loss and a significant portion of the sector's excess capital wiped out.
With the third quarter earnings season around the corner, the market is waiting to see how much of a toll the recent hurricanes had on results, and what it is likely to mean for full-year earnings
After a large number of companies in our coverage universe disclosed losses from the recent hurricanes, The Insurance Insider looked at how the estimated impacts compared to a common measure of exposure and loss sensitivity - their disclosed probable maximum loss (PML) numbers
Aspen anticipates booking $360mn in pre-tax catastrophe losses for the third quarter, including the three major hurricanes that affected the US and Caribbean as well as other events, and said it expects to report a $340mn underwriting loss for the period.
Arch Capital Group pegged its third quarter catastrophe losses at as much as $345mn after taxes, net of reinsurance recoveries and reinstatements, mainly from the period’s three hurricanes and two major earthquakes in Mexico.
Everest Re estimated it will report $1.2bn in pretax catastrophe losses for the third quarter, net of reinsurance recoveries and reinstatement payments.
Specialty insurer Markel estimated it would have a pre-tax underwriting loss of $503mn for the third quarter, net of reinsurance recoveries, because of Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria as well as the two major earthquakes in Mexico.
Recent company pre-announcements for Q3 catastrophe events have surprised the market, with some loss numbers coming in well above analysts' expectations.
