July 2014/3

Downstream energy underwriters could face a $60mn-$240mn loss after a fire and explosion at a petrochemical plant operated by Thai refiner IRPC, sister title Inside FAC reported last week.

Berkshire Hathaway has continued to show a strong appetite for assuming long-tail US liabilities with the giant Liberty Mutual adverse development cover announced last week (17 July).

Fast-growing Florida-based homeowners' insurer Federated National is set to launch a new P&C carrier in the state in a joint venture with Canadian bank CA Bancorp and reinsurer Transatlantic Re.

(Re)insurance executives Joe King, Enda McDonnell and Adrian Ryan have completed their 100 percent buyout of Florida and Texas insurer Cypress Insurance Group (CIG) for $63mn.

Simon Smith, Skuld's executive vice president for group business development, has resigned from the Norway-based marine insurance group, The Insurance Insider can reveal.

Operating profits at independent broker Price Forbes soared by 88 percent to £9.01mn ($15.4mn) in calendar year 2013.

Head of liability David Jones and senior underwriter Helen Beamish have left AmTrust at Lloyd's for the nascent Lloyd's underwriter Acappella, The Insurance Insider revealed last week.

The aviation war market is waiting anxiously on the conclusion of a week of fighting at Tripoli Airport in Libya, which has placed $440mn of limit in danger.

The rapid and long-term softening that has plagued the aviation all-risk market finally looks set to come to an end in the wake of the MH17 disaster, market sources predict.

The Insurance Contracts bill, a reform of UK commercial insurance contract law, was last week (17 July) introduced into parliament following eight years of consultation between the Law Commission, businesses and insurers.

Interest rates are unlikely to return to pre-crisis levels in the near future, and forecasting is a fool's game, according to former UK chancellor Lord Norman Lamont.

Liberty ratings upgrade; AJ Gallagher acquires; International rates plunge; Catlin downgraded; Sequel hire; Anointed; Gibraltar approved; KBW sours on Scor; Arthur a non-event; Cat 3 Rammasun hits China;