July 2007/1

Dutch financial services company ING Group announced last week that it has reached an agreement with P&V Verzekeringen to sell its Belgian Broker and Employee Benefits insurance business for EUR750mn.

A proliferation of extreme natural disasters is expected in the next 25 years, resulting in record insured losses and massive loss of life, according to predictions by Professor Bill McGuire...

Swiss Re is involved as counterparty in the first insurance linked securities transaction to reference an existing cat bond as a trigger with the launch of $140mn Fusion 2007 Ltd.

Private equity investors The Blackstone Group and DLJ Merchant Banking Partners will sell their stakes in Bermudian (re)insurer Aspen Insurance Holdings Ltd in an underwritten public offering.

Amlin plc remains an attractive investment, despite its shares underperforming the UK non-life sector by 9 percent in the first half of the year, according to Shore Capital's Eamonn Flanagan.

The Association of British Insurers (ABI) has said the cost of the recent UK floods is expected to reach £1bn, double the £500mn estimated by modeller Risk Management Services (RMS) last week.

Illium Managing Agency Ltd has parted company with active underwriter Denis Burniston, who founded the Lloyd’s liability specialist in 2003 with current chief executive Russell Benzies.

German bank HVB Group said it has completely divested its remaining stake in Munich Re, which was equal to about 2.2 percent of the voting rights.

Lloyd's has taken another stride towards an automated market by providing underwriters and brokers the opportunity to use technology to provide support for checking insurance slips.

SCOR took a further step toward closing its deal for Converium last week after being given the nod by Switzerland's Federal Office of Private Insurance (FOPI) to buy more than 50 percent of the reinsurer's share capital and voting rights.

Lloyd's insurer Chaucer is likely to be a target for Bermudian (re)insurers and private equity firms, according to Eamonn Flanagan at Shore Capital.

It was only recently that a US judge was bemoaning the lack of case law on reinsurance broking commissions and then along comes Benfield Group suing rival Aon Re for $2.4m in damages...