January 2015/4

With yesterday's (25 January) surprise announcement of an $11bn merger, both Axis and PartnerRe released details of their preliminary expected fourth quarter results.

The surprise $11bn tie-up between neighbouring carriers Axis and PartnerRe is set to create a new giant in the reinsurance space, as carriers vie for scale and relevance in response to an increasingly soft and challenging market.

Catlin and Scor have launched the first non-life catastrophe bonds of 2015 through two higher-risk deals, sister publication Trading Risk reported last week.

The top 10 ILS funds lifted their combined assets under management by 11 percent throughout 2014 to reach $40bn at 1 January 2015, according to the latest Trading Risk survey of ILS investors.

State Auto's attempt to plug its leaky programme business after another reserve strengthening has received a mixed response from analysts and ratings agencies, with Moody's warning of a possible downgrade for the loss-struck insurer.

Australian carrier QBE is set to sell Deep South, SIU and Community Association Underwriters (CAU) to Alliant for more than $100mn less than it paid to acquire the firms, according to data collated by The Insurance Insider.

Price softening in the lossmaking downstream market is being driven both by excess capacity and underwriters' willingness to deploy this capacity in earnest, according to Willis.

The challenges faced by hedge fund reinsurers in the current investment climate came under the spotlight last week, adding fuel to the debate over the efficacy of the model.

Travelers has replaced its cat excess-of-loss treaty with a huge aggregate (agg) cover as part of a restructure that saw a further meaningful increase in its first event retention, the company disclosed on a conference call.

The period during which the three shareholders of Lloyd's third party managing agency Asta could buy each other out following the end of a post-deal lock-up has passed without any bids, The Insurance Insider has learned.

Global insurance giant American International Group (AIG) is putting its non-life reinsurance arm AIG Re into run off, The Insurance Insider can reveal.

The news that Axis and PartnerRe have agreed to merge may come in time to be seen as a watershed moment for the reinsurance industry.