January 2018/4

Insurance-linked securities managers have reduced their estimates of losses taken from the August and September hurricanes, according to the Eurekahedge ILS Advisers Index.

A group of sidecars tracked by sister title Trading Risk lost 10.5 percent of investors' capital on average after Harvey, Irma and Maria, according to regulatory filings from the Stone Ridge and Pioneer Interval funds.

Run-off and legacy management is rising up boardroom agendas to become a medium-to-high priority for firms, research from PwC has found.

Canadian pharmaceutical company Valeant is suing its insurers as it seeks to claw back more than $325mn in costs, as well as unspecified damages, arising from class actions following its attempted acquisition of drug firm Allergan.

Uncertainty around the Ogden rate continued to push up UK motor excess-of-loss (XoL) renewal rates at 1 January, albeit with substantial divergence across programme layers.

The implosion of Carillion is likely to add further losses to UK trade credit underwriters already reeling from the collapse of wholesaler Palmer & Harvey and airline Monarch.

Continued excess capacity and the overall resilience of the market meant most 1 January accounts renewed flat on a risk-adjusted basis, according to Guy Carpenter.

Validus looks set to become a US taxpayer after its $5.6bn acquisition by AIG, with the buyer's management citing recent tax reforms that may also shape future deals involving the purchase of overseas carriers by US companies.

The AlphaCat asset management franchise appears to have played a major role in AIG's decision to bid for Validus, and if the deal closes it will be the first time that a major global insurer has owned an alternative asset management platform of scale.

With Validus set to come under AIG ownership, the spotlight falls on the dwindling number of Bermudian (re)insurers still in the public markets.

One way to think about AIG's $5.6bn proposed acquisition of Validus is as an elegant example of the fact that the structure of management incentives will shape corporate strategy - for better or for worse.

Bermuda-based carriers' share prices jumped upon the news of AIG's $5.56bn takeover bid for Validus yesterday, buoyed not only by the prospect of further M&A on the island but also Brian Duperreault's positive outlook on the sector.