January 2007/3

Marsh Inc has been awarded China’s first Wholly-Owned Foreign Enterprise (WOFE) insurance broking license, it announced yesterday (22 January).

Senior management at Windsor plc, the UK-quoted insurance broker, made public the terms of their £33.7mn acquisition proposal for the firm this morning (22 January).

Hannover Re has re-visited the capital markets in order to boost its Kaith Re "K5" securitisation to $520mn and expand the reinsurer’s underwriting capacity.

Validus Holdings Ltd and Greenlight Capital Re Ltd have become the third and fourth reinsurers formed after Hurricane Katrina to confirm plans for initial public offerings (IPO).

Castlewood Holdings Ltd, the Bermuda headquartered run-off acquisition and consultancy firm, has bought Inter-Ocean Holdings Ltd for $57mn.

Equitas' senior executives will share a bonus pool of £10.4mn once the landmark agreement with Berkshire Hathaway is finalised, it was revealed last month.

US insurer St Paul Travelers is to terminate the payment of contingent commissions to brokers by the end of the year, according to Connecticut attorney general Richard Blumenthal.

The growing focus on Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) was again brought to the fore when it was cited by Standard & Poor’s (S&P) as a reason for Munich Re’s upgrade to AA- last month.

German firm is third major European reinsurer to be downgraded below A- in recent years

Aon Holdings BV completed the acquisition of the remaining 51 percent of the shares of Moscow-based Aon Rus LLC this month.

Glencairn acquisition fee could be over two times brokerage dependent on performance

Paul Milton, the chairman of Aon Professional Risks (APR), retired from the broking giant last month.